The Soul of the Sword
by Bleedndreamz
Summary: A bet with Yamanaka Ino spin's Naruto's life around. Gaining a friend out of chance, Naruto's days begin to get better despite his genin team that left him tied to a stump. On his first real Mission a Swordsman sees something in Naruto that surprises him
1. Chapter 1

Anyways, something I am working on doing with all of my stories is giving an overview of where I am going before the first chapter, so you as the reader has the opportunity to press the back button if you don't like the general ideas I have for the story.

Let me start off first by saying the idea comes from the story Enslavement by Leaprechaun1.

In my opinion, that I have also shared with him. I felt that his story was basically just a smut story(To all readers who like smut, go check his story out.) The idea consisted of a bet between Naruto and Ino, ending with Ino losing the bet and becoming his slave. Smut ensued.

I have decided to try and take a different spin on the story, I felt the story idea had potential if it moved away from so much smut, and to an actual story.

This story is going to be a NarutoxIno story, as was the original Enslavement. My story is straying away from the overdose of smut the original story had. I am building my own plot into the story, while keeping the stories original bet.

The story is going to be a bit slow the first couple chapters, and then it will pick up exceptionally quickly in the Wave arc(3-4 chapters in, yes the chapters are already written.)

I have decided to try and take a new spin on writing. I see bashing everywhere these days which takes away from fairly good stories. I have decided that if I don't like a character, I will develop them into a character I can appreciate. So there will be no bashing in this story.

That will not stop me from stating the blunt obvious facts the first couple of chapters. Even a bit of stretching the truth.

I don't want to give away the plot, so all I will really say is that Naruto all of his life grew up without friends. He couldn't effectively call Konoha home due to his situation. Naruto winning this bet with Ino inadvertedly gave him something he was always looking for, a friend. A spin on Zabuza and Kakashi's first encounter by the lake changes Naruto's life, in more ways than one.

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Naruto sighed as he looked down at his feet outside of the academy. He had been assigned to the team consisting of himself, Sasuke and Sakura. He originally thought it was going to be a blast. A team with his crush, and a person he admired.

Of course he would never admit the later. He wasn't even sure he admired him. Maybe it was jealousy, Sasuke had everything he wanted. People loved him, screamed his name and he could just shrug it off as if it didn't even phase him.

Naruto had already put up with five years of girls screaming "We love you Sasuke-kun!" like he was some sort of rock star. The problem was his crush had her own crush on Sasuke, as did every girl in his graduating class.

Naruto liked to think he was mentally more mature then other kids his age. He had tried to humble himself like the only father figure he really had in his life, the Third Hokage. However... it was tough, you can't really be humble about things when you have grown up with nothing. He tried to practice being humble, and having a positive outlook on things ever since the Third Hokage told him it would be a good thing for him to work on.

The problem was he couldn't walk down the street and see find children walking down the street with only a single parent. You can tell which children had lost their mothers and fathers in combat by the look in their eyes. The Third had told him that there is always something he has that others don't and it made him special. However he couldn't see it, those kids at least had a parent. He had no one.

He idly wondered if the "Special" thing he had was really just a demon that terrorized his village twelve years ago, and his biggest known enemy just decided to tell him about it yesterday.

It was pathetic honestly, how would anyone ever accept him?

"Hi my name is Uzumaki Naruto, I have no friends, my only ninja skill even worth mentioning is the kage bushin, by the way I have a demon inside of me that likely killed all your family members twelve years ago." he muttered to himself. He suddenly heard footsteps that instantly caused his eyes to widen, 'They didn't hear that did they?' he silently asked himself in panic.

"Jeez, you really are weird Naruto. Honestly who sits on a swing all alone talking to themselves? Anyways where is Sasuke?" A blonde asked. She seemed to be annoyed, her shoes had dirt all over them. It quickly lead him to believe that she had been searching for Sasuke for awhile.

"I don't know Ino, I'm not Sasuke's keeper." Naruto said frustratedly rolling his eyes as he leaned on the right rope of the swing.

Ino glared at Naruto, "What the hell is your problem?" asked all of a sudden causing Naruto to quickly stare up at her. She was tapping her foot impatiently as she glared at him.

Naruto chose that moment to let his anger out on her, "My problem? What the fuck do you mean my problem!" his problem? She had been his tormenter the entire time he had been at the academy. She always hit him and made his day shitty. '_So did Sakura_.' A voice in his head whispered to him in a seductive, intoxicating voice.

Naruto grit his teeth, forcing out the voice, "My problem is everyone! Especially you! You made my entire education at the academy utter hell. Every day you will run into class, screaming, eventually hitting me over taking your seat. What seat? There were no fucking names on the damn seats. Everyday, I will arrive first to class, followed by Sasuke. Sasuke will sit next to me and you will end up pushing me out of my seat and hitting me because I stole your seat. So no fuck that, my problem? My problem is you... you self centered pain in the ass. What is your deal with Sasuke anyways? He isn't that special!" Naruto was panting after his anger induced rant.

Ino quickly wiped back a tear asking, "Why would you say that?" she asked quickly wiping back another. Naruto refused to answer, he would likely blow up again at her starting with 'It's the truth!'

Naruto shrugged as Ino spoke up again, "And Sasuke is special, he is cute, mysterious, and is the strongest ninja in the academy!"

"Ha! I can kick that bastards ass any day!" Naruto said scathingly.

Ino looked alarmed before quickly standing up straight holding back tears, "No you can't Naruto-baka. Stop trying to pretend you can't, every academy duel you ever had with him you lost. The next time you beat Sasuke, I will be your slave for a week!" Naruto perked up at this, that idea caught his attention. A week with a friend, with company. Regardless of it being by force, he had never had anyone his age spend time with him.

"Fine, Is that a bet?" Naruto asked, eyes narrowing. Ino looked rather alarmed at that, she hadn't expected him to even consider it after boasting about Sasuke's wins over Naruto. However, if she backed down now in fear of being Naruto's slave, it meant that she didn't believe that Sasuke could beat Naruto without so much a second thought. If she backed down, then she was aknowledging that Naruto was actually a match for Sasuke.

"Y-yes, that is a bet, if you lose you have to be my slave for a week and if you win I will be yours for a week." her voice was a bit shaky at that start, however she couldn't let any lack of confidence in her crush show. Naruto's eyes were just so... unnerving to her.

Naruto outstretched his left hand from his seat on the swing, "Fine."

Ino slowly put her hand in Naruto's grasp and shook it. The deal was made between the two Konoha shinobi.

Naruto stood up, "Lets go find the teme." he said with a grunt as he stood and began walking to the direction of the docks.

Ino yelled out, "His name is Sasuke!"

Naruto shrugged, several yards ahead of her, "I don't care."

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Naruto was right. He knew exactly where Sasuke hung around, and it was easy to find. Hell he wasn't even obsessed like Sasuke's fangirls were, and even he knew Sasuke took to hanging around his house and the dock near training grounds. Thinking about it was rather funny since Ino had spent time trying to find the boy, and Naruto found him relatively instantly.

Naruto walked down the hill quickly with quick short steps, "Hey asshole! Lets go!" Naruto threw a pebble at Sasuke's back, which in turn hit him in the head.

Sasuke turned around to see none other then Naruto standing there with a glare on his face, and a ways behind Naruto on the hill was Ino cautiously walking down.

Naruto didn't hesitate to charge at Sasuke, who simply jumped over him and bounced a bit backwards moving away from the dock. Naruto's tackle, had ended with him on his knees.

He turned shooting a piercing glare at Sasuke, who looked afraid for a second. It was almost as if he saw his eyes turn red almost like...

Sasuke shook the thought from his mind and settled into the practiced Uchiha fighting stance. It wasn't terribly good now, since he didn't have the Sharingan. It utilized predicting the movements of your opponent, then counter attacking. He didn't have the sharingan, but in melee combat Naruto was predictable.

Naruto charged forward with a volley of punches, no form almost as if he was purely a street fighter. Sasuke swiftly dodged all of the formless punches that were being shot his way. For Sasuke this had grown to be routine, Naruto would challenge him to a fight, he would beat him and then he would carry on with his day. However, something in Naruto's eyes this time made him nervous. He knew he shouldn't be, it was just Naruto. However the quick glances that he caught of Naruto's eyes, the utter determination in them, the coldness he hadn't seen since his brother.

Sasuke flinched as he took a blow to the gut, which caused him to stumble a few feet back. That was pathetic of him, to allow Naruto to get a connecting blow such as that. What made it worse is he was continually comparing Naruto to his brother. Naruto and his brother? Yeah right, while he hated his brother he was an amazing ninja. Naruto he was bottom of the class, he barely passed the academy exam.

Sasuke decided it was time to finish the fight, he through a punch forward that Naruto is known to never dodge. However to his surprise Naruto tilted his head and let the punch go by him. Naruto got in Sasuke's face again with a look that made the Uchiha want to flinch.

Sasuke pictured Naruto mouthing words with the voice of his brother, "_Getting scared like this Sasuke? It is not becoming of a ninja. Perhaps I chose the wrong person to be tasked for revenge._"

Sasuke grit his teeth at that thought that made him pause, however a pause was all that was needed for Naruto to get the upper hand. He was a surprising ninja after all.

Naruto came at Sasuke from the front, while two clones ran up from Sasuke's sides, flanking him. Sasuke noticing this tried to punch the closest one, but it proved to be useless. Sasuke hit one dispersing it into a cloud of smoke only for Naruto to grab him by the throat and lift him into the air. With the assistance of his clone Sasuke was rendered immobile.

Naruto's gaze caught Sasuke's eye, and the Uchiha grit his teeth. Naruto then opened his mouth, making Sasuke want to punch him in the throat.

_"Give up Sasuke, you lost."_ the voice, the calmness was so much like his brothers. He acted as if he was no challenge at all to Naruto. He wanted to rip his hair out at the thought, he had to be going crazy. He just got beat by the academy dead last, and the said dead last was reminding him of his genius shinobi traitor of a brother.

Naruto continued to hold Sasuke up a foot off the ground. It highlighted his superior physical strength. Naruto calmly repeated, "Give up Sasuke. The fight is over." This voice sounded much more like Naruto, and snapped Sasuke back to reality. Sasuke grit his teeth slowly, the cold truth was Naruto defeated him. Sasuke slowly nodded to his defeat, not wanting to pass out through lack of oxygen.

Naruto got a huge grin on his face and looked over to Ino, who this entire time was openly gaping like a fish. Naruto calmly said, "Ino wait here."

Naruto offered a hand to Sasuke to help him stand up. The Uchiha had promptly fell to the floor on his knees at the sudden ability to intake oxygen. He was panting heavily and stared at Naruto's hand. Sasuke hesitantly took the offered hand, and was quickly pulled to his feet by Naruto.

Naruto turned to Ino and said, "Ino wait at the top of the hill actually." Ino was shell shocked, and was about to burst out complaining of course until the words of their bet repeated in her head silently.  
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Y-yes, that is a bet, if you lose you have to be my slave for a week and if you win I will be yours for a week._

She grudgingly stalked up the hill, wanting to scream and curse her foolish bet.

Naruto was about to follow, and Sasuke called out to Naruto facing the lake. "How did you beat me?" he asked, a frown on his face at the thought of Naruto's eyes.

Naruto paused mid step at turned to Sasuke, before turning back to Ino and shrugged, "I guess because I had something to fight for."

Sasuke grit his teeth at that thought, and whispered silently to himself, "He's wrong... connections make you weak." he thought to himself with a frown on his face.

_Right?_

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Naruto once he got to the top of the hill grinned at Ino. She was currently leaning against a wooden fence, red in the face with her arms crossed. Naruto got an ear splitting grin, "Whats wrong Ino-chan?" he added the suffix to her name to get a laugh out of her reaction.

Ino sighed, "Naruto can we call off the bet please, I really don't want to do this."

Naruto raised an eyebrow at her, "Oh really? You don't want to do this as in you would of called it off even if you won the bet? Or you don't want to do this because you lost?" Naruto asked, a hint of annoyance in his voice. Ino didn't say anything giving him all he needed to know. She would very well make him carry through with the bet if he lost.

"You made the bet, don't assume you can back out of it now. _As a shinobi of Konoha, you are required and honor bound to follow through on any agreement made with a fellow Konoha shinobi."_

He nearly recited the law from book of shinobi laws word to word for Ino. This of course made Ino slide down the fence and sit down on the ground, she was a slave of Naruto's for a week, and there wasn't a thing she could do about it.

Naruto of course saw this and decided to tease her, "Maybe I should just have you walk around my house naked, cleaning thing all day. I could film it and sell it for a lot of money."

Ino's eyes widened until she heard Naruto burst out laughing. The laughing stopped and he stood right in front of her, "Or use you for sexual favors!" that prompted him getting hit, and Ino being red in the face due to a mix of embarassment and anger. "I won't do that for you... you you... sick fucking pervert!"

Naruto rubbed his chest and laughed as she said that, "What could you do about it if I wanted that?"

Ino flinched at that, she could do nothing unless she wanted to break shinobi code. Naruto stretched and rolled his arms as knelt down to Ino once again and got in her face with a grin of his face. He cupped her chin between his left hands fingers. Ino was doing anything but looking Naruto in the eye.

Naruto smiled lightly, "Ino don't worry about all that. I wont do that to you." he said with a small smile on his face. "I really only agreed to this because you would give me some company for the next couple weeks. Here... comon." He outstretched his hand to Ino helping her up, which she reluctantly accepted.

Naruto was about to walk away before he said, "Ino, you owe me a kiss on the cheek."

Ino scowled, "Why?"

Naruto looked rather amused at that, it was fun being in charge. He could understand why Iruka-sensei liked teaching. "Well one, because I can. Two because you hit me earlier."

Ino grit her teeth and practically stomped over to where Naruto was standing, and kissed him on the cheek.

Naruto didn't expect himself to turn so red, which in turn caused Ino to get an amused smile. She hadn't kissed a boy, hell Naruto was actually the first boy she had kissed. It was nice knowing her kiss had an effect like that, even if the boy who got kissed wasn't her crush.

Naruto tried to straighten himself and quickly said, "Alright..." he coughed a bit, "Lets go to the training ground, you can meet me there everyday at 12 alright?"

Ino tilted her head, "Naruto it is almost 6pm, I have to go home for dinner soon."

Naruto turned to her with a grin, "Well I plan to get full use of my slave since I just got you. Its like a new toy! I just got to play with it."

Ino rolled her eyes, "So I'm just a toy to you?" she asked loudly, rather annoyed with that concept.

Naruto frowned, "Well do you consider yourself my friend?" there was an air of desperation in his voice.

Ino while catching it, chose to ignore the question. They weren't friends, they were far from it.

Naruto frowned when he gained no reply from Ino, "I see..."

Desperation only attracts vultures.

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I hope you liked the brief preview of the chapter you recieved here. I have three more chapters done that I will be releasing soon. I promise that this story has plot unlike the basic story idea this sprouted from. My problem is giving you all a good summary or a preview without spoiling one of the most important things.

Anyways read and review, the next chapter will be out within the next three days, whenever I feel like posting it really.

Any feedback is completely welcomed.

Criticism is encouraged as long as it has value. Flaming as long as it has points is also find. Blatant nerd raging behind a computer screen is not.

Hope you enjoyed the chapter.


	2. The Irony of Kakashi's Teamwork

Naruto grit his teeth as he struggled against the ropes of this stump. This was officially the worst team ever! His sensei was three hours tardy, he hadn't eaten more then a bite of food all day. His stupid team sensei preached about the value of team work the entire genin test, and then they all left him tied to a fucking stump?

The sun was shining brightly down on him, he could see his skin was getting red. He normally would heal the sun burn before it could take on any effects normal people got. However, if he stayed out in the sun all day, he doubted even he could escape the effects.

Kids had come by earlier. He recognized most of them, it was hard to forget faces that would laugh at him or look at him in fear. At least he knew why. It really put a damper on his day however when instead of coming by to untie him, they threw rocks at him and pissed on his pants. It was the worst feeling in the world to feel so disliked to get such treatment.

Naruto hung his head, Ino hadn't shown up yet either. He had been tied to the stump for at least an hour and a half now. It was likely around 1:30 by now juding by the sun in the sky. Part of him wanted to give up trying, and just hope that someone would come get him soon. His sensei wouldn't seriously leave him tied to the stump would he? What if he wouldn't be able to get out?

He smelled like piss, the cut on his forehead from a rock had healed. However the large amount of blood going down the left side of his face had dried. It likely stained that part of his face red, he was barely able to control the rage he was feeling.

The more he thought about his current situation the angrier he got. Sasuke could have untied him, Sakura could have untied him, Kakashi could of untied him. Better yet, why was it him being tied to the stump? He proved he was better then Sasuke yesterday, and Sakura didn't do a thing the entire day especially during the test. Hell she had assaulted him during the test when he said Sasuke wouldn't be able to get a bell alone. That was pathetic. She then proceeded to act as if the world was ending when she had to feed him.

There was teamwork within the team it seemed. However it was Kakashi, Sakura and Sasuke against him. He was on his own, and if that was the case he would prepare himself as such. Sasuke the entire day refused to look him in the eye. Sakura was constantly paying attention to Sasuke, no matter how much he tried to get their attention. Kakashi didn't bother to give him lunch when through creative use of his shadow clones he was at least able to brush one of the bells tied to his waist.

Naruto grit his teeth, "Ino where the fuck are you!" he yelled out loud, ready to snap.

Just then a voice cut the air, "Jeez Naruto what the hell happened to you?" said a distinctly female voice. Naruto peered out and squinted his eyes in the sun light, just enough to spot Ino walking his way.

"Oh save it Ino, just fucking untie me. Better yet where the hell were you!" he yelled clearly angry. He had to hold back tears, he hadn't been abused like this since he was a little kid. He felt like shit.

Ino glared, "Well for your information N-aaarrrr-uuuu-toooo" she stretched out his name as she drawled, "I actually have a life, my team decided to do some bonding and we went to have barbeque after our first practice."

Naruto wanted to snap, "I don't fucking care Ino. Does it honestly look like I care." anger written all over his face, "Just fucking untie me, this is rediculous."

Ino wished she could directly disobey Naruto, of course that bet she had made with him made it so she couldn't do it. Unless she didn't care about the idea of being someone with no honor. However Sasuke-kun certainly wouldn't appreciate someone with no honor.

Ino got closer to Naruto and asked, "So why can't you get yoursel- What the hell Naruto did you piss all over yourself?" Ino began laughing at Naruto as he growled.

"I can't believe you actually wet your pants Naruto! Thats pathetic."

Naruto snapped, "Shut the fuck up Ino, or I will force you to eat dog shit and work in a brothel for the remainder of the week!" The second the ropes got even an inch looser then they were, Naruto snapped them an began pulling off his jacket and shirt as he stomped over to the lake in the training ground.

Ino had paused when Naruto yelled at her moments ago. She chose to silently follow him after that. She was taking Naruto's normal weak, sensitive personality for granted. She could very well be used as a whore for the week, just so he could make extra money. However he wasn't doing that, and he was really just treating her the way she was treating him. She was making fun of his over his misfortune, he could very well force her to do things because of her own misfortune. She was in no room to laugh at Naruto.

Ino snapped back to her thoughts, only to catch Naruto stripping and walking into the lake, "What the hell Naruto! This is a public training ground!" she yelled covering her eyes. Naruto chose to ignore her.

"Ino give my my pants and underwear." he said in calmly, but annoyance was there in his voice.

Ino was about to openly say 'No they are covered in your piss!' she grudingly walked over and picked up his pants and underwear by the top of his pant's, where there was no pee. It still didn't stop her from picking the articles of clothing out with her thumb and index finger, and barely tread into the water before she tossed them to him.

Naruto pushed the clothes under water and put a rock on top of them as he washed the blood off of his face. Ino sat near the lake, it was a bit odd for her watching a boy wash himself. She could understand why he wouldn't want to walk through the streets with his former appearance, but she couldn't help but feel this was natural to him. He wasn't shaking from the cold water, not so much as a flinch.

Naruto sighed in the cold water and spun around to look at Ino, while it pained him to apologize, he was taking his anger out on her and she didn't deserve that. "Ino... I'm sorry." he said simply. Ino perked up at that, being polited she followed suit.

"Well I'm sorry too Naruto... but explain to me, how were you not able to control your bladder?" she asked curiously. She didn't make it sound as much of a insult, or laughing at him this time around. Naruto scowled at the thought.

"It's not my piss." he said simply.

Ino didn't know what to think. That thought tore her up, such a simple response to a genuine question. The response was one you didn't want to hear. The thought that people would go by and piss on some kid tied to a log, when he couldn't defend themselves? Then not even bothering to untie them? That was pathetic, Naruto like every other ninja was a guard for their village. Why would you treat a person that protects you like trash? The thought didn't make sense to her.

Naruto had turned his back to her by now, not interested in continuing the conversation any longer. Ino got the hint and quietly sat down on a boulder by the lake. "So why were you tied to the stump Naruto? Did you act out against your sensei again?"

Naruto frowned at the thought, he mulled over how he should answer that but quietly said, "No... We took our team test today. He kept on telling us how teamwork was the core of a good team. How shinobi that don't follow the rules are trash, and shinobi who abandon their comrads are worse then trash." Naruto sighed and shook his head before continuing, "But then my entire team leaves me tied to a stump? I can't help but feel it was a mistake being put on this team. Sure I didn't have great academic grades, but that doesn't mean I'm a bad ninja." He picked up the rock that was currently on his pants and tossed it near the center of the lake.

Ino stared at Naruto lost in thought. She always prided herself on her book smarts, she was the second best in the class amongst the females. Then she always dominated the other girls in her class in the physical spars.

Naruto however was always put against Sasuke in the spars, you can't grow from constantly getting your ass kicked. Sure, it makes you not want to get your ass kicked and it may prompt you to train outside of the academy. However something as delicate as Taijutsu, you can't really train yourself. If you tried to teach yourself Taijutsu, more often then not you would end up teaching yourself an improper form similar to a street fighter. While street fighters may dominate battle amongst Civillians, even the greatest street fighters would be beaten by some of the weakest trained ninja.

They had spent the majority of the day yesterday after Naruto's confrontation with Sasuke training. They trained well into the night, and she got a lot of exercise. She went home and crashed on her bed without dinner that night. However through all of the training she learned more about Naruto. He was extremely resourceful.

She had several bumps and bruises on her body that wouldn't of healed if it wasn't for the fact that her mother was a medic ninja. Any bruises that she would have had were taken care of by her.

She paused to look at Naruto only to frown. Naruto had no parents, and she knows she had given him a good few solid punches the other day. He should of been bruised quite a bit which was odd to her. It was strange, the more she thought about Naruto, the more questions she would get.

On one hand you have a trouble maker of the academy, that got the worst possible grades. Then on the other hand, you have a boy that can beat the rookie of the year without much trouble at all. Honestly? No one else in the academy can make solid clones, how can the dead last?

Ino's face contorted in concentration. His taijutsu form was horrible, and yet with the use of seemingly endless clones he is able to make his absolutely crap form into something absolutely brilliant. Then even when not using jutsu to spar, the "dead last" becomes a genius.

She would often punch him down or knock him backwards with a good kick, and suddenly he would have a rock or large stick off the ground and smashing against her arm. She knew he could just as easily smash it on her head and end the battles right there, but he chose not to. Naruto fought dirty when he wasn't under the crutial eye of teachers. He would use anything and everything in a battle to get by, wether it be picking up a rock, throwing dirt in someones eyes, or a low blow.

The Naruto she had to spar against actually frieghtened her, he was ruthless against competition winning at whatever costs. Even then, where he would win the majority of the spars, he wouldn't even try to hit her in the head or any other points that would have her on the ground instantly. If she got hit in the throat, she could be on the ground gasping for air. Naruto seemingly refused to do that and said he wouldn't used those tactics on friends, only on his enemies.

Once again another thought popped into her mind, due to thinking about Naruto. "Friends?" she wouldn't really call the two of them friends. She would make fun of him with the help of the other girls in the academy. They just happen to be in a situation where she had to stick around him, unless of course ordered not to.

Ino was brought out of her thoughts by the sight of Naruto standing up out of the water. A blush rushed onto her cheeks, she knew she should of turned around quickly, but she didn't want to. This was the first guy she had seen so... bare. The thought made her red in the face.

'Naruto looks pretty cute with his hair wet like that, and his muscles make him look so s-' Ino promptly shook her head free of her thoughts. This was Naruto they were talking about, she quickly took to repeating a mantra of "You like Sasuke-kun" in her head. It proved to be no use, ever time she tried to picture Sasuke, Naruto would come back into her mind.

Naruto turned around and grabbed his pants out from under the water. The view alone made Ino give out a undignified 'Eep' much like Hinata when Naruto would randomly say hi to her. She slapped a hand over her mouth, but didn't stop watching until she saw Naruto's face twitch slightly. His face went from one of impassiveness to a small grin, it was obvious he had heard her. As he pulled on his pants and turned to her and gave her a smile.

'Son of a... fucking flirt! Since when does Naruto flirt with anyone? Why does it have to be now!' Ino was doing a fair impression of a tomato. 'He is just fucking throwing himself out there.' she thought to herself, finally turning away after a large internal struggle not to. She quickly felt wet hands on her shoulders. The cold water trickled down her skin feeling amazing on a hot day like this.

The wet hands began to massage her shoulders and Naruto's voice broke through the air, "So... like the show Ino?" he asked rather amused. The self proclaimed "show" wasn't the original intention, however when Ino took to watching him, he couldn't pass up the opportunity.

Ino turned red as Naruto's hands began to roam around her neck and shoulders, and eventually began to go down her arms. Ino got shivers from the touch on her body.

Naruto was starting to have a internal battle with himself, being a growing teen, his raging horomones were not helping the situation. He had always wondered what it would feel like to kiss a girl... to do other things to a girl. He wanted to blush at that thought, of how he created his personalized henge. It was often spying in on brothels and women's locker rooms. He learned a lot, but had no way to practice what he learned. Then here he was with someone that would have to practice with him... 'But can I do it?' he asked himself silently.

He didn't want to force Ino to do things like that, just because he could. 'That wont stop me from going as far as I can...' he added as an after thought. Naruto proceeded to massage down her sides and knelt down behind Ino.

Ino in the mean time was in heaven, 'Wow... if I knew Naruto could give a massage like this, we would've been friends a lot sooner!' she said to herself as she arched upward when Naruto began to massage her spine near the lower back.

Naruto proceeded rub his hands gently up and down her bandaged legs as he put soft kisses on her neck. Ino gasped at the tickling sensation and the surprise from the kisses on her neck. Ino felt like jello at the feeling of the roaming hands, each time then went up her legs they would go higher and higher teasing her.

Ino knew it was wrong, she knew many things were wrong. Like watching Naruto bathe today was wrong, but she couldn't help it. She pushed the thoughts out of her mind, and tried to focus on the tickling pleasure she was feeling.

'Curiosity killed the cat Ino...' Her concience called out at her. She almost forced herself to stop at that thought until she felt her nipple get rubbed from the inside of her clothes. She promptly gasped at the touch and told her inner thoughts.

_'Stupidity killed the cat, Curiosity was framed.'_

She quickly grabbed Naruto's hand that was still on her leg and pulled it up between her legs and gasped at the feeling. She leaned back into Naruto's chest, even though it isn't an order if anyone asked her about it she would say it was. She twisted her neck to Naruto and practically forced a kiss on him. She would be damned if any of this happened before her first kiss.

A few moments later, she yelped. She would just let whatever happens happen. This was too good to stop right now.

She quickly did the birth control jutsu taught to all kunoichi while in the academy and let Naruto carry on.

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Anyways yes, this was the O_O! thing I didn't want everyone to freak out on and hit the back button. It is not smut or whatever, but people may feel the need to trip balls over just the notion of sex anyways. Again, I assure you there is a story to this, it takes a few chapters to pick up however lol :).

I enjoyed the reviews everyone, thank you. The were pretty much all positive.

I'll just address basic one line reviews that I felt should be addressed, and haven't had the time to personally PM atm.

"Does Naruto have to be so desperate?"

No, he doesn't. He also wont always be, it is just some background info into his character.

Also, in all honesty _ Naruto is desperate, he always has been even in Canon. I am just choosing to highlight it more, and make it a bit more severe.

He cries for attention with pranks, he begs his teachers to teach him jutsu and train him, he makes promises and bets, he is loud and obnoxious.

Desperate for attention. "Desperation attracts Vultures." (lol Mizuki x_X')

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Sir Midnight: Yay, boo for character assassination? lol.

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Anyways, all and all the story is going to progress fairly normally, nothing chaotic atm at least. The plot picks up in Wave.

bleh I am personally having trouble with what I wanted to say _' so please just read and review. I will respond to the majority of reviews as long as they ask a question, or give a suggestion. If I don't personally respond to you it is because multiple people asked the same question and I will address it in the next chapter, (That will be out whenever... next few days I think)

Anyways read and review please, emphasis on review lol :).

Again, this wont become another smut filled enslavement, both stories will have their strong points. If you like to read smut I suggest you read the original. If you like plot, feel free to read this and tell me what you like about it.

I personally feel like I am beating around the bush a bit trying to get the last kinks out of Naruto and Ino's relationship, so all suggestions are welcomed.

You will hear from me soon :)

-Bleed


	3. Look into my Eyes What do you See?

The two blondes laid down looking up at the sky from the boulder they were on. Many thoughts flew through both of their heads as they thought about the situation.

"I can't believe we just did that... I mean we are twelve!" she gave out a frustrated cry at the thought.

Naruto couldn't help but feel the same way, sure he loved how it felt, but they were both very young. It was fairly awkward as well, Naruto knew a lot about sex from what he had seen. However he wasn't prepared for the intense feeling. Sure they had done it several times, which Ino said wasn't supposed to be possible from what she had learned in her Kunoichi class. "Well... most shinobi die at our age Ino..." he tried to reason, and convince himself.

Ino sighed, her head was resting on Naruto's chest. "It still wasn't right, I wanted to save that for the man I loved Naruto!" she felt like she was going to tear up, "I wanted to save that for Sasuke-kun."

Naruto flinched at that, did he like Sasuke? Not really. Did he think Sasuke liked Ino? No... not really. Did he feel bad about taking something from her that she wanted to possibly save for someone else? Kind of...

"What is so good about Sasuke Ino? What act of kindness has he really ever done for you?" Naruto questioned her.

Ino pursed her lips as if she was lost in thought before quickly replying, "You wouldn't understand Naruto, Sasuke is just a man of f-"

"He's a boy Ino." Naruto cut her off.

Ino snapped her head to Naruto before growling, "Oh yeah then what does that make you Naruto? You act like you are better then him."

Naruto stayed silent, taking her elbow shot to his ribs with a light wince of pain. "A man..." he said simply.

Ino rolled her eyes and remove his arm that was wrapped around her, "Having sex doesn't make you a man Naruto."

Naruto this time chose to roll his eyes, "I never said that is what makes a boy a man. I call myself a man because all my life I have had to support myself. The Hokage pays for my apartment, however all other money I had to get on my own through whatever means. Sasuke is a boy, he spends all of his time moping around feeling sorry for himself, getting people to feel sorry for him and for what?"

Ino got wide eyes, "What do you mean for what! He lost his entire family Naruto!"

Naruto shook his head, "See that is pathetic. I'm an orphan, I lost my family, or I never even had a family Ino. I would much rather of had love and lost it, at least then I would know what it is. Everyone loves Sasuke, they all want to adopt him, be his girlfriend, whatever. I'm an orphan Ino, among other things. People don't care that If I'm on the streets, no one wanted to adopt me, no one cares. I don't go around moping about has people who want to try and be his friends, and he pushes them all away. I have no friends, and welcome in anyone... even if they happen to be traitors.

Ino raised an eyebrow, "What do you mean traitors?"

Naruto sighed, "Mizuki."

Ino glared, "What the hell do you mean Mizuki-sensei is a traitor Naruto. That's not nice to say!"

Naruto shook his head, "No Mizuki is a traitor, he tried to steal the forbidden scroll a couple days ago Ino. Well... actually I stole it because he asked me to, he then tried to kill me for it. However I mastered the shadow clone jutsu and was able to surprise him and beat him."

Ino face went through various emotions ranging from surprise to frustration. 'He beat our chunin instructor...' she thought quietly to herself. It was amazing how often Naruto could surprise her.

Naruto looked over to Ino, he pushed her blonde hair out of her face, it was no longer in a bang, her ponytail had fallen out during their earlier fun. "Ino..." Naruto started as he looked over her then the lake, "What does this exactly make us?"

Ino pursed her lips, they weren't even friends when this happened. She wanted to be with Sasuke-kun... but since this already happened, and she enjoyed it. She knew she was going to want it again and she knew Sasuke wouldn't suddenly turn a leaf and make love to her. In closed her eyes and sighed, "I don't know... can you give me a day or so to think about it?"

It was odd to her, she was beginning to like Naruto. She didn't know exactly how she was beginning to like him, or in what way she liked him. Maybe it was just because what they had done. All she knew is that it was starting to happen. The look on Naruto's face made her heart sink. He was obviously hoping for an on the spot answer, and frankly that just wasn't an answer she was able to give just yet.

Naruto grimly nodded at her answer. He sat up on the rock, Ino's head sliding into his lap. "Come on I'll walk you home." he nearly whispered to her with a frown.

Ino stayed there for a couple seconds, searching his eyes before sitting up and fixing her clothes. She fixed her top and put her hair back into a pony tail, albeit a messier one then normal.

Naruto leaned over the side of the rock and proceeded to put on his now damp articles of clothing. He didn't know how he felt about her needing time, what if she actually decided against it?

Ino stood up and helped Naruto up, they were both choosing to stay silent and not speak to each other. The day was coming to a close, and Naruto respected that she wanted time, so thats what he planned to give her. He gave her a one armed hug as he walked with his shirt over his opposite shoulder. She leaned into it, but refused to wrap her arms around him.

Naruto sighed and pat her back gently, "Come on..."

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Naruto and Ino stood at the doorstep of her families house in silence, a silence that lasted a good couple minutes. Naruto chose to rub the back of his head and take a step back, "Alright I guess I will just ummm... be going now alright? I will see you in a few days I guess right Ino?"

Ino looked away and said, "Naruto I enjoyed today, but you need to give me some time to think okay?"

Naruto tried to catch her eye but ultimately failed and shrugged, "That was the plan Ino, anyways I'll see you around okay?" he laughed a bit at the end to try and liven the mood as he began to walk away. Naruto paused as he felt a pair of arms wrap around him from behind, and a light kiss on his cheek. He grew bright red at the idea, and the voice didn't help the cause at all.

"Night Naruto...kun." The suffix was added as an after thought, but it didn't stop him from grinning. He looked back only to catch Ino's door close. Naruto paused for a moment before he began to run down the street with a large smile on his face, jumping off roofs laughing to himself. Things weren't looking that bad in his life for once.

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Naruto was down and excited at the same time. The Hokage had just given his team a mission out of the village, their first C-rank mission. The bad thing for him was, Ino still hadn't come talk to him. She said she was going to talk to him in a day, but it had been three and he still had gotten no word from her. He didn't really care about the whole bet anymore, he really just missed her presence. If he was honest with himself, she had been far more of a team then his teammates had been so far.

During training more often then not Kakashi would give Sakura a scroll on a genjutsu, and him a book on the basics. Then he would do sparring with Sasuke, and trying to help him learn his phoenix fire jutsu. It was pathetic really, who decides to take up a genin team and proceeds to neglect two of the three members of the team. Sakura may do fine with books, it was how she often learned. Himself however? Well he was more of a hands on person, if you just threw a book his way he often times would get distracted too easily.

Ino had given him friendship, and more he didn't want to think about at the moment. She had been a better friend and teammate than either of his current teammates had would constantly bash him on the head for the littlest things. He had known the Hokage all his life, the entire village should know that. When he was a little kid, everyone's parents would come and get them after school. The Hokage would personally come and get him, so why the hell would she hit him over calling him an old man? It was rather just observing and stating the obvious.

Then Sasuke, he was a dick. He wouldn't talk to either him or Sakura, the only time he would say anything is when he had a question about a jutsu or to Naruto or tell Sakura off. He often walked around with a subconscious message about himself that he wanted everyone to respect him. He assumed everyone would respect him because of his clan. It pissed Naruto off royally, he often found himself trying to bust Sasuke's balls just to get the message across to him that not everyone will respect him because of his dead family. Hell the Hokage had said that he used to be from a prestigious clan, you didn't seem him walk around like he owned the place?

_'That's because you don't own anything...'_ a seductive whisper called out to him.

Naruto shook his head free of the voice before he continued on his rant.

Their sensei... it was virtually impossible to respect the man. He tied him to a stump and left him there for the day. He walked around reading porn, he didn't let you see his face. How can you trust someone when you don't feel like they trust you enough to even show their face to you? So what if your face is scarred, so what if it reminds you of a painful memory? 'I have three scars on each cheek.' he thought sourly to himself.

He was currently on the way home, it was late morning. He had an hour to go pack his bag and essentials. The annoying part about it was that his team was likely going to do an inventory check before they leave. They are going to get full view of his beat up equipment and essentials. He had lived off the land for a year in his early childhood. He learned how to cook stray animals weather they be rabbits, to the occasional domesticated dog or cat.

'Have to do what you can to live...' he thought harmlessly.

Most of his pack would consist of things he had made himself. Weather it be his personal blanket, a sea shell he used to boil water, and a flint stone. If he was honest with himself, he could likely just pocket the flint and make way on the trip without a pack. He never got cold at night, his body seemingly ran at a constant 10 degrees hotter then the conditions called for, as if it was constantly trying to heat up the air around him. He didn't feel it, but it was still something to note, and he was sure Ino felt it. He more often then not found him sleeping without covers in his sleep, because it would become too hot for him.

He didn't want to be cocky, but he had the true potential to be the perfect hunter. Able to hunt in any conditions was a huge advantage over everyone else in the world. He imagined that if he ever went to the countries he had read about in class, such as Snow Country his advantage would shine through. He was unable to get burned, as he noticed many times when he was a child trying to use the stove correctly. He even once slipped into the fire while he was cooking in the forest one night. While his clothes were nearly beyond repair, his body remained as good as new.

Naruto pursed his lips as he adjusted that statement, '_No, good as new would insinuate my body would be as good as the normal human... but I'm not normal am I'_ he thought to himself with a frown.

_"There is nothing wrong with being different Naruto..."_ called a voice irresistibly.

Naruto paused his train of thought and stood still. The voice grated on him, he had been hearing whispers in his head ever since he had become a genin . Sure he could block them out and try to ignore them, however the encouraged him. He knew it sounded crazy. He personally felt that it should be common knowledge that you shouldn't listen to a voice inside your head that is not your own. Who knows what type of techniques ninja have developed over time. Not to mention his personal situation could easily be voices of a figure he would never want to meet. However he couldn't help it, he heard these whispers in his head, they counseled him and they understood him. Hell they talk to him.

He knew it was bad, and that he would likely be taken off active ninja duty if he ever said he was listening to voices in his head, and trying to talk to them. It was just... the voice talked to him. That was more then he could say about other people he had seen in his life. He could count the people that take time out of their day to talk to him on his hands, and he was sure some of them didn't even like him that much. The whispers, while seductive understood him, reassured him, it was something he didn't want to give up.

Naruto hit himself on the head a few times to clear it, this was not the train of thought he needed to be on before his first big mission. He grabbed the flint he had, and put it in his pocket before rushing out the door with only a few ninja supplies. The rest of the stuff he could find or make.

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Naruto sighed at the front gates of Konoha, he had been waiting on his team for a good hour. He was even able to go through a short workout routine the helped build his already impressive physical strength for someone his age. He opted eventually to just sit down at the gate with his head down and allowed himself to drift to sleep. Of course this wasn't the best of plans because he jumped up startled when Ino had plopped down next to him.

There was an awkward silence between the two of them. To be honest it was rather unnerving. They sat still right next to each other in silence for a good five minutes before Naruto let out a slow, "So..." he paused to look at her to see her reaction, "Have you come to say bye to me for my mission? Or are you ready to talk? Whats going on?" he questioned repeatedly.

Ino looked at her hands in her lap before lifting her head and shrugging her shoulders. "Sure... I mean I wanted to say goodbye to you as well, but I also wanted to say goodbye to Sasuke-kun and Sakura."

Naruto tilted his head to the side at the mention of Sakura, "Don't you two always fight? The last time I remember you not fighting was when you two were about seven..." he finished slowly, expressing his obvious confusion.

Ino caught on and laughed a little, it did seem rather odd if you put it like that, "True... Me and Sakura do fight a lot, however I still like her. I mean she is my best friend, how can I get mad at her over a boy? It is not so much fighting anymore, it is just all for this rivalry."

"Rivalry?" Naruto raised an eyebrow, "What are you rivals about?"

It was a simple reaction, and much to Ino's displeasure it prompted her to purse her lips and try to think of an explanation, she found none. Quickly opting to deflect, "Naruto do you know when Sakura and Sasuke are going to get here?"

Naruto stared at her for a moment and couldn't help but frown, she didn't have to act like that with him. "They are somewhere... I don't know, they are supposed to be here already. However I have been here for a hour, I'm actually getting rather hungry. They better hurry."

"You didn't eat breakfast?" Ino asked curiously. Naruto shook his head slowly with his head down letting out a sigh.

"No I didn't have anything in the kitchen, and I thought I was running late anyways."

Ino was about to dismiss him saying he had nothing in the kitchen as an expression until she realized this was Naruto. Naruto seemed to get the short end of the stick in life, at least she had noticed since she started to pay attention to him. "What do you mean you don't have anything in your kitchen? Where do you eat?"

Naruto stared at her for a moment as if searching her eyes for something before shrugging. He motioned his arm out to the forests of Konoha beyond the large gate. "I normally cook my food, because I normally don't have any or much money. If I do have money it is normally used to buy ramen, or cheap ninja tools."

Ino's eyes widened momentarily, "Why don't you have any money? Don't your pare... oh..." she cut herself off prematurely. He had no money because he had no means to make it till now.

Naruto bit his lip and choosing to mimic Ino, "Hey there is my team!" he said quickly as he pointed down the street, where sure enough his team was walking alongside an old saw Sakura carrying along a take out box and couldn't help but get angry. They left him out of this? They didn't tell them they were going to get food? He was starving here, they likely wouldn't make any stops for food now for awhile on their trip.

_"Why are you surprised... Its not like they have treated you badly before? Right Naruto-kun..."_ the intoxicating voice drifted through his head. Naruto heard the words echo and whisper for moments until he told himself, 'No... wrong. They have done this to me before.' he grit his teeth at the thought.

_"I was just trying to make you feel better..."_ whispered the feminine voice in his head. This of course got a reaction from Naruto. Who had really ever tried to make him feel better about the things he did? Everyone seemed to reprimand him. They would punish him or make him feel bad and then leave was the only one who had ever tried to make him feel better. The night he had given him his headband, and even then it was too little too late.

'Thanks...' he uttered to himself, unconsciously he said it out loud promptly gaining Ino to ask in response.

"For what? I have been snapping my fingers in front of your face the past thirty seconds, it was like you weren't even there." she told him with a hint of frustration in her voice. However while she was frustrated she was also tempted, she was tempted to use her clan techniques to find out exactly what he was thinking about that was causing him to zone out like that.

Naruto was about to say something, or give an explanation. However his stomach decided it was his turn to do the talking. It promptly growled, rather loudly. This of course gathered a blush from Naruto. Oddly enough instead of Ino finding it funny, she was a bit worried. She reached to her side and gave Naruto a small paper bag that was sitting beside her.

Naruto felt a bit annoyed with himself for the fact that he hadn't noticed the bag until now, however when he opened it up he was very happy to see a sandwich along with some looked over to Ino , while he was happy that she had given it to him, he didn't really want to take it from her. "You sure?" he asked carefully as he held up the small paper bag.

Ino caught Sakura and Sasuke out of the corner of her eye, they had now reached the gate. Ino gave a smile, "Well originally the lunch was for Sasuke-kun! However... it looks like you all went to eat so..." she paused and rubbed the back of her head with a smile, "You can have it Naruto since you didn't eat." she then stole a glance at Sasuke to see if her statement had gained any reaction from him. Of course when it didn't it was a bit disappointing.

Naruto spotted Kakashi in the corner next to the client and he promptly got up and marched over to him. Ino saw this and wanted to stop him until Sakura had come up to her.

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Naruto walked up and promptly punched his sensei's chest hard. "What the fuck!" he yelled, gaining the attention of everyone around.

Kakashi was rather surprised by this type of reaction from Naruto. "I arrive here perfectly on time, and you all take an hour to get here! I didn't even get to have breakfast, and you all come walking an hour and twenty minutes late with food!"

Kakashi recovered from the surprisingly strong blow delivered from Naruto and said, "You need to calm down Naruto."

Naruto eyebrows rose quickly before lowering in anger, "Calm down! What reason have you ever given me to respect you or at least be civil with you? This is fucking pathetic!"everyone's attention was now glued to the interaction. The continuous use of vulgar language on Naruto's part had everyone's attention.

"You arrived three hours late when we were supposed to meet you. You preached about teamwork and then left me tied to a stump. You tell everyone to be here on time, and then you go with everyone except me for food! I wouldn't of gotten to eat for hours until Ino just gave me her lunch!" Naruto grit his teeth and clenched his fists, he had the desire to hit the man once again and tear that stupid mask off his face.

"Naruto, you have to trust me as your sensei tha-"

Naruto exploded, "Trust isn't given its earned! Aside from the fact that you give me no reason to trust you. You don't even trust us with anything about your personal life, your face. I am not going to place my trust in someone who can't trust me. Not to mention when I have no reason to even like the person."

Naruto relaxed himself and calmed down, which Kakashi took it as the perfect time to talk.

"Naruto, you are my student, you will talk to me in a respectful manner regardless of the situations. I'm sorry that I didn't tell you about the team getting food this morning."

Naruto scoffed, "No your not, the team consists of you, Sasuke and Sakura."

Kakashi paused for a moment and tried to think of a time he had actively helped Naruto since they were a team. He wanted to use that as an example, but it only proved to make himself feel like a fool. He hadn't really helpedNaruto at all since they had became a team at the beginning of the week. He had actually done more wrong to him then good. He could understand why Naruto was acting the way he was now.

"I ran into Sakura and Sasuke the other day after training, I thought they would of passed the word onto you." Kakashi said, seemingly trying to convince himself that was the truth.

Naruto sighed he didn't know whether it was the truth of a lie, but it didn't matter to him, "Do you wear that mask and headband over your face to make up for your absolute inability to lie effectively."

All of the younger students were surprised. Not by Naruto saying those words to Kakashi, but more that Naruto picked those choices of words to express his statement. Naruto always appeared to be the student that used the most simple words to express himself, or how he was feeling. It was as if he taught himself how to speak and read.

Naruto sighed and chose to look Kakashi in the eye. Almost like a challenge Naruto stared at him and calmly asked, "Look in my eyes Kakashi, what do you see?"

To everyone listening in it was an odd statement. Something that one normally didn't say. They knew it was a documented quote that was given by Uchiha Madara to Hashimara Senju during the founding of Konoha . However no one really used it because they didn't understand exactly what it meant. It appeared to be a thing on a personal level because it thoroughly shook Hashimara during a meeting.

Kakashi looked into Naruto's eyes not to back down from the underlying challenge given from Naruto. However once he did he wished he hadn't.

Various memories flashed by him playing out in Naruto's eyes. Obito, Minato, Kushina. He understood why Minato and Kushina may show up in his eyes, but Obito just baffled him and it hurt. To him it lasted minutes, but to everyone else it was only seconds. He flinched and took his eyes off of Naruto before calling out, "Team we leave in five." He turned away from Naruto and began reading his book, trying to get his thoughts collected and no more stray memories.

Naruto didn't know exactly what happened, he just knew the statement was a challenge done between a shinobi and his superior, he just felt it was the right time to use such a statement. Naruto wanted to laugh when he said "team" and quickly called out to Kakashi, "So who is this "Team" you speak of? Am I part of it, or do you mean Sakura and Sasuke!" he finished in a yell hints of frustration still lingering in his voice.

Kakashi dismissed it, with a quick "Your part of the team too Naruto."

Naruto scoffed, "I see, fine I will settle with a sensei that is worse than trash. Those who abandon a mission are trash, but those who abandon their comrades are worse than trash. It is fine I understand."Naruto turned around and began walking back to the wall.

Kakashi had looked up when he had his late teammates quote thrown back in his face once again. He only looked back in time to catch Naruto's retreating back. However as his mind opted to dye his clothing black and orange along his his air, he understood why Obito flashed into his head.

'They are exactly the same...' he thought as he pursed his lips under his mask before turning back to his book not wanting to think about the subject any longer.

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"Wow... Ino-pig what was that about?" Sakura quickly whispered to Ino.

Ino currently was depressed, she thought it would be hard pressed for anyone who listened to that to not feel a bit bad for Naruto, "I don't know Sakura..." she lied. "I just came to say goodbye to your team." she finished with a small smile on her face.

Sakura raised an eyebrow and crossed her arms, "Why would you want to say goodbye to me or Naruto? You are just here trying to get closer to Sasuke Aren't you. You even made that lunch for him." she finished with a frown.

Ino rubbed her arms and laughed, "No really, I did want to say goodbye Sakura. You are a good friend to me, I want you to be careful. Yes I like Sasuke, so I'm going to say goodbye to him after you." she smiled at the end over her statement.

Sakura's frown broke and she quickly pulled Ino into a hug, "I'll be okay, It is just an escort mission. What is the worst that could happen?" Sakura pulled away smiling at Ino. Ino gave a half smile back, her mind now on all the bad things that could happen to the team. She just hoped none of them came true.

Ino promptly turned and ran over to Sasuke and forcefully gave him a hug. His calm expression turned to one of annoyance rather quickly, "I'll miss you Sasuke-kun!" she said with a hint of joy and laughter in her voice.

Sasuke shrugged her off of him and said, "Go away Ino." in frustration. He the positioned himself against the wall to prevent another "assault on his person."

Ino was a bit disappointed at the short goodbyes between the two, although they had taken the five minutes Kakashi had set aside before they were going to leave. She quickly turned to where Naruto was, only to see his position had changed from where he was originally sitting. He was now facing away from the group, his back against the edge of the gate blocking his vision of his team.

She walked over to where he was sitting and asked, "Why did you make a scene like that?" she said with a frown.

This action gathered the attention of the ninja around. It was actually on file that Ino and Naruto were the least likely people to ever get along. Yet here they were, trading lunches, talking with each other, sitting with each other. It didn't make any sense, especially to those that she was close to.

Naruto rolled his eyes at her, "Why did you hump Sasuke's back like that?" he shot back at her. She in turn flinched, was that really what it appeared she was doing?

Naruto's team started to walk out onto the road, formations around the client already being called. Naruto sighed and quickly said, "I have to go alright?"

Ino grabbed his arm as he made his way to leave, "No why are you acting like this. You were fine earlier, and now you are being an ass to me. Just because you are mad at your sensei doesn't give you the right to be a complete asshole to me."

Naruto frowned and as his team continued walking and got out of earshot he harshly whispered, "How am I supposed to feel. I mean what? Am I only going to kiss you in private? Am I not good enough to be your friend in public Ino? Once Sakura and Sasuke arrived, the "popular people." he used finger quotes for emphasis, "You completely ignore me, and act like when you are giving me something, it isn't to a friend but to a lost cause. I should of made you kiss my feet in front of everyone for crap like that." he snarled out as he shrugged out of her grasp.

Ino flinched, she had ignored him since Sasuke and Sakura came around. She couldn't help but feel two faced. She quickly tried to redeem the situation by pulling him into a kiss like she had seen in the romantic movies she had used to watch with her mother when she was a child. However it wasn't the same as it was the first time they kissed. It was like there was only activity on her part of the kiss.

When she broke away Naruto looked down with a frown, he said, "See... this is what I am talking about. You only act this way with me when we are in private."

Ino quickly looked around, she hadn't even noticed they were alone. The only one around was someone up the street checking out the fruit stand, too busy to pay attention to a couple kissing at the gates of Konoha. Ino hastily tried to correct him, "Naruto it isn't like that at all I jus-"

Naruto shook his head and covered her mouth, "Ino I have to go, I'll just talk to you after the mission or something alright?"

He then walked onto the road at a quick pace to catch up to his team leaving Ino in distress. Something clicked for her at that moment, while she liked Sasuke, she grew to like Naruto just as much.

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Naruto walked down the road looking down and kicking rocks as whispers filled into his head.

_She likes you, you know?_

_However... she likes the black haired boy more..._

_Don't worry though Naruto-kun_

_I love you, no one could possibly love you more than me_

"Then where are you?" he said to himself.

_"I have been here all along Naruto-kun." whispered the tempting voice._

Pain spiked into his head and his vision started to blur. The world around him went from his normal color vision, to seeing chakra rapidly until he saw for a moment a female standing before him.

She knelt down to Naruto, who was currently laying on the ground. Before him was a woman with perfect skin. Her hair was to her mid back and a fiery red color that blew and flickered around like a flame. Her face was that of a goddess, beautiful elegant features that women would kill to have. Her body had a perfect figure, nothing too big nor too small. Her body was toned, that helped show off her curved figure. She had blood red eyes with black slits. She had sharp teeth that made their presence known when she gave a feral smile. She had three whisker marks on each of her cheeks far more feral than Naruto's.

Her smell was intoxicating, it was as if everything one liked in life was the smell she gave off. Her voice was that of an angel, which did not go too well with the appearance she gave off. Her melodic voice could likely get anyone to do anything for her, male or female. Every moment she made could have you entranced and wrapped around her finger if she wanted.

All the while giving off this image, she wore standard shinobi issue clothing, that of a jounin. She moved over to Naruto and ran a clawed finger on his cheek and gave him a smile. She opened her mouth and her seductive and enticing voice came forth once again, _"See... I have always been with you Naruto-kun... It is time for you to go back now."_ She rolled him over and gave him a kiss on his lips that had him melt for a moment before widening and shooting up... back into reality.

Fading whispers filled his senses, for once causing him to smile to himself no matter how dark the words were. He felt that in a cryptic sense the reiterated his life.

_O all ye, who pass by,_

_whose eyes and mind_

_To worldly things are sharp,_

_but to me blind;_

_To me, who took eyes that I might you find:  
__**  
Was ever grief like mine?**_

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Possible Long AN, you don't have to read. It would be nice if you did, but it is not required that you do so. Please don't leave reviews asking questions about things addressed in the AN.

Anyways chapter 3 is done. If you catch any mistakes please leave it in a review. My word program seeming went buggy with me, and several words saved stuck together. I don't know why. So I was able to catch all of the words that were "errors" however if you find a couple words that combined to make a new word, I may have missed it. So I apologize for that :(.

I suddenly decided to make Kyuubi(as if you didn't know by the end of this chapter) a much bigger character then I originally intended for this story. Mainly because I saw that little bit of a poem(that I gave you at the end of the chapter) in an AMV recent, and I loved the concept. Soo... I wont reveal anything more than that. It doesn't change the idea of the story much any time soon so no need to worry.

The chapter was a bit bigger then I originally intended, but I doubt you will complain about that. Hopefully I didn't make it feel too rushed, I know Ino's goodbyes to Sasuke and Sakura were a bit rushed, I wanted to do them but didn't know exactly what to say. I got half way through Sasuke's part and then suddenly told myself, 'Sasuke wouldn't willingly put himself on blast and make himself the center of attention over a topic such as losing to Naruto.' so I decided to have conversations between all of them at a later date.

If anyone has guessed this story is going to progressively get darker as It goes on. I hope I am showing a darker side for Naruto. Not one that is blatantly, "Oh I hate everyone I am going to destroy Konoha, but not before I get myself a harem of women" or some garbage that I see in some stories. However just showing little things that build on top of eachother. Some canon, some a stretch of canon.

If anyone has any ideas of how to make little things build up a darker past for Naruto. I am all ears, and I will respond to any suggestion thrown to that subject.

Some of you may be wondering if this is going to be Naruto/Ino/FKyuubi. I... don't know, I normally dislike Harems, however I don't think I would be going out of character or being unreasonable using Kyuubi the way I am. (Like a powerful Nymph, sort of)

Anyways... Everyone generally didn't go off about Naruto and Ino having sex _ but if you have any questions and want to be filled in early just send a PM. I have my reasoning behind it and plan to add it in at some point in the next couple chapters.

The story was going to make a major break from canon in the next chapter, however I have decided to change my game plan up a bit with this. So the next chapter will take a bit longer to get out. I may retitle the story "The Sacrifice." if I decide to go through with the changes.

Read and Review please, and if you enjoy the story spread it around :). Anyways have fun.

x

Edit: 6 corrections go to "Just some random dude", thanks a ton. I was hoping I wouldn't miss that many, but it appears I did X_X. Thank you.


	4. What it means to be a hero

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto

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Naruto jumped in front of his team who were walking by the bridge builder, falling into formation. Naruto was late, and he knew it. He was surprised that his sensei hadn't chewed him out for arriving late, or delaying their mission. Not to mention he had caused the bridge builder to drop his drink. Of course his teammate hadn't been as kind. She had went on about how it was in bad taste to do that to their clients, which Naruto promptly chose to ignore.

Naruto sighed and stretched his hands at the front of the group, setting a rather quick pace, something the bridge builder wasn't too happy about. With the way Naruto was walking, one could likely jog slowly at the same pace as him. Naruto however was just stressed, the confrontation with fiery haired woman was stuck in his head. Not to mention what did the kiss mean? Was she really going to always be there for him? Was she the only one that understood him? Was he going crazy due to it being a voice in his head?

These were thoughts flying through his head as he walked down the road. He paid careful mind to not step in the puddle on his way at the front of the group, wouldn't want his fe-

_'A puddle?' _Naruto spun around quickly and threw a kunai into the puddle, only to watch the liquid turn red and out burst a single shinobi who had a chain seemingly tying him to the puddle. He knew something was up since it hadn't rained in weeks, he was actually surprised he was able to make that connection with all the thoughts going through his head at the moment.

The shinobi continued to tug at his chain that tied kept him tied to the water. Naruto looked around, now fully alert and his eyes wide couldn't help but scowl as he saw his sensei. He was standing there off to the side reading his book. Sasuke had taken up a defense stance by Sakura and the bridge builder. They both fell down in frieght when the shinobi had jumped out of the water.

Acting quickly Naruto chose to do the first thing that came to mind for him, he created two clones and charged forward.

The mist shinobi's eyes narrowed and he snarled behind his mask, it was just luck that the stupid brat would throw a kunai and it would hit his brother in the neck paralyzing him but keeping the genjutsu in tact since he had yet to die. He lifted up a gauntleted arm like a shield preparing to backhand the genin. There was only one of them, honestly how many fresh genin could actually make a solid clone? The last one he could recall from mist before he had fled with Zabuza, was Zabuza himself making a solid clone. It was in fact how the demon was able to slaughter all of his class mates. Through his superiour chakra supplies used to make clones and outnumber the students.

This boy was no Zabuza.

This was, what he thought. Naruto charged forward, one clone in front, him on the left wing and another clone on the right. The mirrored their actions and rushed forward, kunai's drawn. One clone leapt upwards, one clone tried to attack the shinobi from the right, and Naruto ducked under the flailing chain to go for a stab to the ribs.

The mist shinobi backhanded the on clone coming at him away, to his surprise to get his vision filled with smoke. He flailed a black booted foot forward, in hopes to hit the one that he saw was going for his left side. The idea worked, however that put all of his balance on his right foot. The pain that shot throughout his body moments later was something he hoped would end shortly. His vision cleared, and was now just blurry. The kid was stabbing him repeatedly on his right side, cutting into him stomach, ribs, a large slice across the chest. His eyes closed when one final stab got him directly into the heart, it wasn't a painless death, but it was a relatively quick one.

Naruto stumbled backwards once the man slumped forward, he didn't know what to feel. The only problem he felt was right now, he felt no remourse for what he did. He killed the man, and his biggest concern was when he was going to get to the Wave village to sleep in a proper bed. His brain shouldn't be working like that, at least he hoped it wasn't working like that. He would feel like a rather sick bastard if it did work like that.

He walked up to the fallen shinobi with pursed lips and pulled it out of the man. He knew one thing was for certain, he was not going just leave a kunai behind. He was low on money as it was, there was no need to contribute to that. He wiped off the blood on the fallen man's clothes as he closed his eyes for a moment. Naruto's team watched the scene with varying emotions.

Sasuke grit his teeth, but kept his expression rather monotone. He was going to protect the builder and Sakura, then save the day. He never imagined that Naruto would be able to kill someone so openly like that. However the image of Naruto's face mirroring the expression Itachi had the night of the genocide came into his mind and he held back a flinch. Naruto while seemingly stupid in tactics, horrible in book smarts, the dead last of the academy had exceeded him in the practical part of being a shinobi? The thought annoyed him to no end.

Sakura's mind was far more one track. She always used to look at Naruto as some horrible, annoying boy that would always ask her to get ramen with him. However as of recent that boy has been gone, and to add to that fact, the blonde wasn't a boy. He had just killed someone. She never thought Naruto took his shinobi training seriously, and thought it was just fun and games. Yet... here was Naruto, the dead last of the academy, likely the first of their graduating class to make their first kill.

Kakashi was the one on the team far more open about how he felt, "Naruto... why did you kill him." he said with an exasperated sigh of frustration.

Naruto spun on his heels to look at his supposed teacher and couldn't help but get annoyed by just looking at him, "Why did I kill him? What do you mean why did I kill him? How often have you let someone who jumped out of a puddle right in front of you live? Not to mention he was a missing nin, for all we know he could of been trying to kill us?"

"Naruto! That is my point, we don't know what he was doing, for all we know he wasn't trying to kill us but he was trying to kill the bridge builder." Kakashi's eyes narrowed as he stared at the sweating old man. "Why were there shinobi after you Tazuna-san?"

Naruto clenched his teeth before making an outburst, "Like you said, we don't know if they were even after him Kakashi-sensei! So lets just carry on!"

Tazuna mentally thanked the boy, "I agree, I have no idea why shinobi are here. Perhaps they were after one of you."

Naruto snickered and added to that, "That could be true, the bingo book does have you listed in there Kakashi." Naruto grinned at Kakashi's obvious displeasure with how Naruto had decided to take things.

Kakashi stared Naruto along with Tazuna before saying, "Alright Sasuke you lead, don't go as fast as Naruto was going. I need to talk to him at the back of the formation."

The Uchiha let out a sigh, if he was in the front and Kakashi and Naruto were in the back... it meant Sakura was also in the front. Sasuke nodded and to the right side of the road, and opted to walk on a slanted part of the dirt road which was as far as he could get from Sakura.

Kakashi and Naruto lagged behind at the back of the group, and Kakashi while looking at his book asked Naruto, "Why are you directly opposing whatever I tell you?"

"Why do you where a headband over your eyes, fashion statement?" Naruto quipped back at the scarecrow before holding up a finger and running back to the fallen shinobi's body. He was back in step with Kakashi moments later, in his hand was the mist shinobi's headband.

Kakashi watched as Naruto tucked his blue headband over his eye, and proceeded to wrap the other headband over the lower half of his face, "How do I look?" he asked with a large smile, which was covered by a mist shinobi headband.

Kakashi ignored the question and proceeded to say, "It is wrong to loot a shinobi's missing nin headband."

Naruto quickly jabbed back, "It is also wrong to tie your students to a stump for a day."

Kakashi rolled his eyes at the fact they were back at this subject, "You should of known how to get yourself out."

Naruto laughed, "Oh really, because the next day you told me I needed to learn the basics."

Kakashi pursed his lips under his mask and lied through his teeth, "I didn't know you hadn't learned the rope escape technique."

Naruto shrugged, "It's okay, I didn't know the sensei's that would take our teams would be femme fatales, chain smokers, and perverts."

Kakashi opted to ignore the barb, no reason to punish him when he was trying to talk to the boy. "Why is it that you are deflecting every question I give you? Why did you kill that missing ninja?"

Naruto felt the urge to continue his pace with deflecting and say something like 'Slow down with the questions, your going too fast!' but he knew that it wouldn't score him any points in this conversation. "Are you seriously trying to ask me why I killed a shinobi that was trying to kill me?"

Kakashi paused, that was the wrong way to ask the question, "No it's just that I stood back watching the battle to see who the shinobi was going to attack, and you killed him before he could try and attack the bridge builder."

Naruto scowled, "Oh, you just stood back? What if he wasn't after the bridge builder? What if he was just killing whomever because he was a homicidal maniac? You just stood back when I was in danger. Hell he even had poison on his claws!"

Kakashi ignored the majority of the questions and statements, "How did you know he had poison on his claws?"

Naruto found it much easier to fake his emotions with all the cloth over his face, "It was horrible... when you tied me to the stump the villagers came and started slicing me with knives laced with ricin..."

Kakashi's eyes widened for a moment then narrowed, 'Did I really leave a kid tied to a stump, only to be stabbed repeatedly with a poison twice a potent as cobra venom?' Kakashi paled at the implications, he could understand why the boy was so intoler-

"That was a lie, no you just tied me to a stump, and got breakfast with two of your students while you left me out. That is why I don't like you, don't respect you, and don't trust you. Did I mention you just stood by while I fought a trained killer? Yeah... I don't trust you. Don't ask me stupid questions like why did I kill someone who was likely going to kill me."

Kakashi Stared at Naruto as the boy ran ahead to the front of the group, ahead of Sasuke and Sakura forming a diamond formation around the builder. Kakashi sighed, he talked like that always deflecting and ignoring a persons questions, was he really that annoying to talk to?

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Back with the fallen mist shinobi a masked ninja jumped down to the road floor. Dispelling the genjutsu layered puddle, she quickly picked up a paralyzed shinobi and vanished in a swirl of leaves.

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Naruto continued walking along the road sifting through various thoughts that had happened throughout the day so far. He thought back to Ino, he may have been a bit hard on her, but he found it just. She had fairly just, she did seemingly only want to be around him when people weren't around. Other than that she was hanging on Sasuke in public. A thought crossed his mind as he thought about Ino and he couldn't help but smirk.

_'She makes a horrible slave...'_

Naruto heard a rustling in the bushes and let his instincts take over once again, throwing a kunai directly at it. He just hoped he hadn't hit a child or something in the forest.

"Naruto! What are you doing!" yelled Sakura, startled by the Kunai that flew by right in front of her. Naruto ignored her and jumped into the brush, to come out moments later holding a snow white bunny by the ears.

Naruto was looking at the bunny rather funny as if something was off, when he heard Kakashi yell, "Get down!" before he pulled the builder down. Sasuke had dragged Sakura down with him. Naruto on the other hand jumped up to the all branch in the tree, just in time to see the glint of metal flying through the air over his team.

A large blade stuck into the tall tree in front of them and in a swirl of leaves, a man stood on blade looking down at the group of shinobi below. Naruto could see his sensei tense his muscles and looked back to the shinobi in the tree to take in his appearance. However the key detail he found was the mist missing ninja headband. Naruto felt a bit bad now, this shinobi held an aura of confidence about him, and caused Kakashi to tense up. Maybe it wasn't such a good idea to kill th-

Naruto shook his head clear of any thoughts revolving around his previous actions, of course it was a good idea. The man was going to kill him if he didn't kill him first. Kill or be killed, that is the way of life of a shinobi.

"I can't believe that it was the blonde boy that killed the demon brothers. I thought for sure that it would of been the great copy ninja Kakashi. Once I had heard you were on the squad, I had to rethink my battle strategy."

Kakashi's eyes narrowed at the mention of his bingo book name, but remained silent searching for a way to keep his team safe, and survive at the same time.

"Honestly I thought of all of your students to kill the demon brothers, it at least would of been the Uchiha." Both Sasuke and Naruto flinched at that statement.

Naruto was frustrated that this mist shinobi was underestimating him, regardless of his so called sensei calling it an advantage or not. He wanted to be taken seriously.

Sasuke however was frustrated at the truth in the statement, his goal was to avenge his clan and yet here he was being shown up by the failure in the academy? That passed on sheer luck? Learns a kinjutsu over night, and is able to beat him the next day. It is ridiculous. He knew several techniques unique to his clan, even techniques taught to him by his brother. He should be vastly superior to Naruto in every way. The thought made him clench his fists until his knuckles were almost bone white.

Naruto clenched his eyes shut in anger and opted to throw this mist ninja's so called distraction. Naruto swung the bunny forward over his head by the ears, however before he could complete his throw several actions seemingly happened in an instant.

He was pinned to the back side of a tree by a masked shinobi with long black hair. The bunny was gently tucked under the arm of the shinobi. The pose contradicted her other hand having a several needles positioned at his neck.

A female voice from behind the mask harshly whispered, "If you say a word I will kill u." Naruto noticed the slight bit of hesitance behind the female saying that she would kill him. Perhaps she really wasn't ready to do such a thing.

Zabuza and Kakashi had gone into battle while Sasuke and Sakura surrounded the bridge builder. The battle waged on and Zabuza had the upper hand the majority of the battle, even if there were moments where it appeared Kakashi had gotten a leg up on Zabuza.

Sakura was muttering to herself in fear, "Damn Naruto, how could he just run off like that."

Sasuke was having trouble not thinking the same thing, the battle had been going for ten minutes now and there was still no sign of the blonde. He either ran off or was captured by one of Zabuza's accomplices.

Naruto stared the masked shinobi coldly in the face, "When you let me go I will cripple you."

The female's expression was unreadable behind the mask, but in a calm voice she replied, "What makes you so sure that I will let you go?"

Naruto grit his teeth at her, "You don't have the heart to kill me."

The female flinched behind her mask, but did well not to show it, she just hoped it wasn't caught by the boy in front of her.

"Gouzu, take care of the children." she whispered into the trees. Naruto thought he was seeing double when a shinobi looking like the exact same shinobi he killed earlier jumped up from the forest floor, and out into the fray. The one difference the shinobi had was several bandages wrapped around his neck.

That was when it clicked for Naruto, "The puddle turned red... there was another and you healed him didn't you?"

The female stayed silent and turned her head to the battlefield. However one should never take their eyes of Uzumaki Naruto.

Naruto delivered a vicious knee to her stomach, which caused him more pain then her most likely. This was due to the fact that when her body lurched forward from the knee, she dragged the three sharp senbon held as his neck down his chest. It cut right through his jacket and shirt leaving three bloody lines down the front of his chest.

Crushing the pain inside of him, he gave the female an uppercut which caused her mask to fly off and for her to fly backwards, which she in turn took the opportunity to land gracefully on her feet. Naruto wasn't one to give an opponent an inch, because he learn in life, give someone an inch they will take a mile.

Naruto was charging forward and tackled the black haired girl to the forest floor. He pinned both of her arms down, thankful that being a male and receiving little actual shinobi training had left him to work purely on his physical strength. He rolled her over the best he could as the girl flailed against him. He climbed up her back and positioned his knee on her right arm, and hooked her other arm with his own. He took the spare headband he had from the mist shinobi and tied her hands behind her back.

It took quite a deal of struggling to get a secure knot on the girl. When all was said and done, he rolled the girl over onto her back and took his own headband and tied her feet together. She looked up at him with a pleading look, "Please don't do this..."

Naruto tried to put her words beneath him as the voice in his had said harshly,

_"She was going to kill you! Kill her! It is only fair..."_

Naruto said to himself quietly, "I can't kill a woman."

_"Not even if the woman was going to kill you?"_

Naruto grit his teeth and inched to his kunai pouch. Pulling one out he was going to go for the kill.

_"You could do whatever with her, kill her, use her, abuse her. You could force her to follow you Naruto-kun. Another friend perhaps?"_

Naruto shook his head free of thoughts and went for his second kill of the day as he tried to block out the image of the young girls face. That was until he heard a scream of his teammate.

"Sakura!" Naruto said to himself in a panicked voice recognizing the scream.

Naruto quickly looked around for his headband feeling naked without it before realizing the girl was tied up with it.

Naruto quickly put on her discarded Anbu mask and picked up the brunette, and jumping into the fray.

Sasuke looked slightly tired, and his eyes held that of panic. He was crouched on one knee holding his ribs. Sakura was down on the ground, she had been cut along the arm by the shinobi, and had a heated expression. _'Poison...'_ Naruto thought to himself with a frown.

Gouzu looked torn up, he had a kunai in his shoulder, one in his leg and he was squinting his eyes as if his vision was blurred. He spotted Naruto, in the girl's mask and gasped out "Haku... help!"

Naruto's eyes widened at that, Gouzu vision was so impaired that Gouzu thought since he was wearing the mask, he was Haku. Naruto held the Kunai and pulled Haku's hair as she was restrained under his arm, "Say you are going to heal him."

Haku continued to look to the floor not saying anything, which in turn Naruto yanked her hair and forced her to look at him. "Say it!" upon gaining no response from her still Naruto dragged the kunai down her arm, not hard enough to pierce the skin, but enough to be uncomfortably painful like a rabid cat scratching at one's self.

Haku clenched her eyes shut at Gouzu continued to ask, "Haku?" his voice holding more panic then what he originally sounded like. Naruto in anger at the thought of Sakura dying from poison right in front of him and this shinobi wasn't going to even cooperate, he grabbed a senbon from a pocket on the side of her uniform and stabbed it into her back.

"Ahhh!" she gasped out in panic and pain, "Gouzu... I'm coming to help..." she promptly said after Naruto continued to add pressure to the senbon.

Naruto charged forward at Gouzu, just in case Haku choose to tell the shinobi to look out. His instincts proved correct when she shouted, "Gouzu look out!"

It was too late, Gouzu's eyes widened at the last second and he tried to move, but Naruto was quick enough to rip the bandage on his neck off. The slowly healing wound was torn open, blood splattered on the hunter nin mask Naruto was wearing. Sasuke moved to go in for the kill wanting to prove himself, however Naruto stopped him.

Naruto looked very intimidating with the blood splattered hair and hunter nin mask, his voice muffled behind it, he said "Don't kill him, let him bleed out." as he glared at Haku silently as tears swelled in her eyes.

Sasuke was afraid for a moment, at times the blonde was able to adopt the same presence Itachi once held when he would walk around the compound after a mission, or after talking to his father. It struck a cord in him, one that made him feel fear.

_"Don't fear what others think of you Naruto-kun" whispered the voice soothingly, "They should fear what you think of them."_

Naruto flinched at the voice in his head, it was goading him to kill people almost. He didn't enjoy it at least, that was all that mattered right?

Naruto marched back over to Sakura and Haku, he grabbed Haku by the hair, "You will heal her!" it was obvious it wasn't up for discussion.

Haku stared intensely back at Naruto, "No you can kill me!" she nearly shouted, tears swelling in her eyes. She wasn't able to protect anyone, and judging by the looks of things on the lake, She wouldn't be able to protect Zabuza either.

Naruto was rather surprised that she would rather die then heal the enemy. "I will let you live if you heal her." he reasoned in a significantly calmer voice. Both tried to focus on the conversation despite the fact Sakura was screaming blood murder next to them, and the bridge builder was shaking by a tree.

Haku let a tear go down her cheek, "What is the point of you letting me live, when you have taken away everything that I live for." Naruto flinched at that thought. All his life he had wanted a family, and here he went and took hers away.

Sasuke however watched the scene with pursed lips, he was no longer watching a scene between Naruto and Haku, the moment she said that the scene had morphed to himself and his brother. To his frustration, he took place of Haku and Naruto once again took place of his brother. He could tell by Haku's eyes, the eyes just like his own that if she doesn't find anything to live for, she would live for revenge.

Sasuke flinched at that idea, had he truly not found anything to live for? He burried that idea deep inside of himself, hoping that it wouldn't ever return.

_"Then live for me." the voice whispered seductively, however something behind it made it far more powerful than normal._

"Then live for me." Naruto echoed, but before he realized it the statement was already said.

A wave washed over Haku as he said that from behind her own mask. She couldn't describe the feeling, it didn't feel like the boy's voice anymore. It felt like something more was laced in his words, it compelled her to follow him. The idea alone made her furious and yet curious. How could she honestly want to follow a boy, who was younger than her, on his say so after he had just killed two of the three people he lived for.

Haku however let her body do the talking and nodded her head silently and moved her arms to Naruto for him to untie them.

Sasuke reached out and arm and touched Naruto's shoulder, "Are you sure..." he left the statement open as he drew a kunai.

Naruto looked from Sasuke, to Haku, to a struggling Sakura. The look in Haku's eyes, the lonliness had told him everything he needed to know. "Yes... she trusts me..." he said slowly almost as if he was unsure of himself. He promptly untied her arms, which in turn she took to look over at Gouzu and Kakashi and Zabuza's battle. However upon looking she wished she hadn't, Gouzu had already bled out, his eyes now lifeless as he laid on the floor. Zabuza was being swept away in a giant vortex, sent at him by Kakashi. That would of been her moment to step in, she had failed him.

She looked over at the pink haired girl whose eyes were wide open, biting her lips in pain, looking as if she was about to go into shock. Just because she failed her current leader, didn't mean she would fail her new one.

_'Since when did I consider the blonde my new leader?'_

"Sasuke watch her!" Naruto yelled as he took off to Kakashi who, after throwing a barrage of Kunai at Zabuza, took to falling face first into the water. Naruto rushed into the water after Kakashi, while he didn't like the man that much, there was no reason for him to just die because one of them couldn't pull him out of the water. Naruto looked over to the mist shinobi stuck up to the tree as he dragged Kakashi out of the water.

_'Is this what it is like being a shinobi?' he thought to himself with pursed lips._

_A seductive whisper broke through into his mind as he looked around at his team who he had effectively saved, "No Naruto-kun, this is what it means to be a hero."_

Naruto looked at the dead bodies lying around and sighed, _"I didn't ask for any of this..."_

_"Greatness is thrust upon people Naruto, that is why this happened, that is why you take care of me..." the voice whispered soothingly. Naruto could almost feel a caress on his cheek, yet he knew that was impossible._

_"Take care of you?" he asked puzzled at the implication. The voice gave out a seductive laugh,_

_"You really should go grab that sword off of that swordsman's body Naruto-kun, it would be a shame for it to just rust there."_

Naruto was confused as to why the voice dodged the question, but complied once he rested Kakashi down at the shoreline. Sakura was looking better already, she was sitting up and Haku was doing her job. Sasuke supervising her.

Naruto hoisted the blade off of Zabuza's body, and rested him on the ground by the shore. The man was dead, a kunai had pierced him through the heart.

_"Why did you want me to take the blade?" Naruto asked himself in his mind._

_"Why Naruto-kun, you asked what I meant by you take care of me right?"_

Naruto slowly nodded to himself as he walked over carrying the heavy blade over his shoulder the best as he dragged Kakashi back to the group.

_"When is your birthday Naruto-kun?" a seductive voice whispered._

Naruto could feel a large build up of energy form, he hadn't really felt this before but he crushed the feeling and said, _"October 10th, I thought you knew that?"_

_"I do know that Naruto, but do you want to know who I am and the significance of such a date is Naruto?" asked the voice cheerfully._

Naruto's hand began to burn from the blade in his hand, and the group watched as Naruto's face went varrying emotions and his hand began to smoke.

Naruto's eyes widened at the last moment, and whispered far to quiet for any genin to catch _"Kyuubi..."_

Almost as if the blade had skin, it shattered. Not completely, just the sides of the blade. Almost as if it was metal held over a fire too long. The silver metal became black and several random series of cracks appeared on the blade. Almost as if the blade itself had it's own volcanic eruption. The blade was blade with many red orange and yellow cracked lines flowing along them, almost like lava. It didn't produce... much heat. However it produced some, almost like the sword was a living, breathing, chakra being. The blade's lava like cracks seemed to be flowing chakra, in a heavily concentrated visible form. Naruto pursed his lips as he looked at the blade. He rested it on the ground, hand no longer aching from the burn and knelt down with the team.

"Naruto what did you just do to the blade?" Sakura panted, still out of energy from the poison, this voiced the question of the entire group. However Haku quickly covered for Naruto, "Zabuza-sama's blade changes based on the wielder, for example when I used to touch it, it would become ice cold."

Naruto stared at Haku for a moment, gauging whether she was telling the truth, but her eyes said everything. That was complete bullshit, and she was just as curious, if not moreso what happened to her former master's blade.

"We need to move." Naruto said quickly changing the subject away from the blade's changes. "Old man!" Naruto called out to the trees, where Tazuna came out from behind a large bush.

"Help Sasuke carry Kakashi." he said as he looked down at the ground for a moment sifting through various thoughts.

"Naruto... Kakashi-sensei said that if anything happened on the mission that Sasuke would be in charge, and if not Sasuke then I would be in charge." Sakura said as she struggled to get to her feet.

Naruto rolled his eyes, "Oh okay, well then miss "I may still have poison in my system" what do you propose we do?" Sakura looked at her feet at that statement and chose to stay silent.

Naruto turned to Sasuke and said, "Do you have a problem with me being leader for now?" Sasuke didn't want to openly admit it, but Naruto had done far better then he had today. He just shook his head at which point caused Naruto to grin.

"Okay lets change things up then. I'll take Haku, Sasuke you take Sakura, a clone of mine will take Kakashi, Tazuna you have to jog the best you can alright? We wont be stopping. You can set the pace."

Tazuna was in no place to argue as he lied about a mission ranking, and now it was blatantly obvious. Tazuna took off into a jog first, setting a decent civilian pace. The place town must be close if he was willing to run that fast for however long the were going to be jogging.

Naruto hoisted Haku up onto his back after taking his headband back from her tied ankles. He then took place behind Tazuna, with his clone behind him followed by Sasuke. This was in case Haku tried to run. Haku had lowered her head into his shoulder once they had past by Zabuza.

Naruto looked one last time over his shoulder at Sasuke with a smirk, and motioned with his hand to the person he was carrying on their backs. A nudge at the fact that he was having to carry Sakura, which Sasuke opted to scowl at the idea.

They all hoped they would be somewhere they could rest soon, they all had a long day.

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I hope you enjoyed the chapter, as I went on past the first section with the demon brothers, it was easier to write and just flowed out.

Quicknote: Yes I know the demon brothers have a release mechanic on the chain, I didn't know about it when I was writing the fight between him and Naruto. As such it didn't get released.

I hope you liked the combat, what I chose to do with Zabuza and Haku ect ect.

Naruto taking Zabuza's blade was planned from the beginning, I just didn't know how it would look at the time. If you want a visual(because I don't believe I described it well enough) you can google warcraft deathwing, it is similar to how his chest looks(all cracked and lava flowing)

Hopefully I can resist the temptation of having something happen between Haku and Naruto -.-, she is by far my favorite female character in the Naruto series(Tayuya being a close second actually)

This chapter actually wasn't going to come out at all for awhile, the is pretty much due to the fact that I recently looked around and can't help but get frustrated at no longer finding original or good stories with pairings I would want to read.(which is very broad, no yaoi, or Hinata) however it seems there is nothing around outside of those catagories.

**One last thing to mention is I looked around all the "dark naruto" stories recently and they all left a bad taste in my mouth. They all normally follow a similar plot with Naruto being betrayed or the villagers exiling or beating him. Then he either leaves or sets up an "Untouchable" base of opperations in Konoha. Then proceeds to kill people, or is hell bent on destroying konoha? Then to top it all off over half of them are NarutoxHinata, because she is the most likely character to go dark in the entire series right? (insert more sarcasm here) My problem with this is if he was truly "Dark" he wouldn't be wasting time with a bunch of girls or a harem or something, and his plot wouldn't be the exact same as an already existing Naruto character.  
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**Anyways with this thought in mind, I was able to write up a chapter that I will post in the next two days of a story that will hopefully set a new standard for a dark Naruto story. Inspiration for it came from the Spartan Project(Halo books), and bare with me. I don't plan to implement guns into the Naruto universe or anything along those lines.**

**The premise is Naruto is 5 years older then the rookie 9, making him Hana/Itachi's age bracket. Minato wasn't around as much as he could of hoped due to his duties as Hokage. When Kushina had her second child, a girl(idk the name yet) and Minato died, Kushina lived and was too busy to spend time with Naruto and had to take care of the newly born Kyuubi vessle. Naruto's life slowly goes down hill, but takes an immediate turn, for the worse or for the better when he is kidnapped from inside the walls of Konoha by Orochimaru for a project.**

**Now I don't want to give away the details of why he is constructing this project, but I will say it is a super soldier project. This is a dark Naruto story and you will get a bit of a preview at the beginning on what the future could entail, and hopefully you will all want to see how he gets there reading the first chapter.**

Anyways I hope you all read the story when I post it tonight or tomorrow, I'm sorry if this was a bad explanation, but I don't think you will be disappointed with the story.


	5. You Need Me Less Than I Need You

Naruto sighed sitting at a kitchen table inside Tazuna's house on the lake. It was fairly early, 5:45am to be exact. It was especially early for many of them after the stress most of them had all received, everyone else was sleeping in. Gazing over to Zabuza's former blade, now turned his blade that resided in the corner. His mouth flinched as he thought about the blade, he had no idea what it could do, he just knew it had to do something. He didn't know what to think. He knew that the fox could of just been manipulating him, but her voice was so convincing... so encouraging.

He squeezed his eyes shut and sipped on a cup of tea. The problem with the fox is, for all he knew despite it sounding like a female, who knows what type of tricks a demon could pull off. Looking back at the blade he stared calmly at it in the corner and pursed his lips. The blade gave off a low light in the darkness of the room, the lava-like quality of the red parts of the blade flowed along it.

"What are you doing up so early Naruto-san?" came a calm voice, if somewhat surprised from behind him. The bridge builder's daughter came out from around the hallway and into the kitchen. Going down under the counter she pulled out a small bag of coffee to be prepared. The daughter, Tsunami upon coming up then proceeded to stare owlishly at Naruto.

Seeing no way to get out of starting up this conversation, "I am a ninja, I am supposed to be alert and ready for anything."

Tsunami once getting the coffee in the process of being made grabbed a rag and leaned on the counter as she talked to Naruto, "Really? Your teammates don't seem to share the same beliefs?"

Naruto shrugged at that, she had caught him with that one quite easily, he left himself wide open. "I'm the leader of the team currently, they can rest for now if they want. Sasuke is severely bruised. Sakura is recovering from poison being in her system. Kakashi is suffering from chakra exhaustion from his battle with Zabuza. Haku, while in fine physical condition, I practically killed all of her loved ones."

Naruto paused in his short overview of what was going on. Tsunami had stopped wiping down the counter with the rag and looked at Naruto with a frown gracing her face. She brushed some of her black locks behind her left ear, effectively keeping it out of her face. "When do you think all of them will be better?"

Naruto stared as his tea, and began swirling the cup around creating a tiny whirlpool in the tea. Closing his eyes and taking a deep breath "Hopefully? Sakura will likely be able to wake up a bit before Kakashi. Haku and Sasuke will likely be up later today. Kakashi could probably get up in a couple days."

Tsunami looked at the young boy sitting at her kitchen table with sad eyes. How could a child so young be willing to deal with all of this. The way he talked about death just normally unnerved her. Perhaps they should have hired the samurai from iron country instead of shinobi.

Naruto caught her staring at him and pursed his lips, "Looking for something?" he nearly snapped at her. He got stared at enough in Konoha, he didn't need to get the "luxury" here.

Tsunami shook her head and sighed, "This is just something I've never seen. I mean we have never had shinobi from where around here. You hear stories in passing about shinobi, like when you meet them you don't even know if they are friend or foe." Tsunami paused looking at Naruto. "Their stories around her are worse than the vampire folk stories the old men tell in wave. They say the same rule applies, don't invite them into your house. Yet here you are, sorry if i'm nervous!"

Naruto eyes had widened a bit at the woman, that had taken a lot of breath out of her. He felt a bit bad for almost snapping at here, she should have the right to stare. He had heard ninja stories as well, some were even told in the academy. Iwa while their mission completion rate is second to none, they rarely get high paying clients. They were known heavily for the fact that if a group of shinobi took a mission from a high paying client, than happened to find where the clients money was located... the would kill the client, and take the money. Of course using this system, it was hard for word to get out about that going on. It was happening for years, and it was finally weeded out of a shinobi when he was interrogated during a war. He confessed to all of his sins, Naruto sure didn't want to meet Ibiki.

However... I guess the world must have caught on to the fact that nearly every rich person that went into Iwa hasn't come back out.

"Your right, you have the right to be nervous. Those things about us you should know, however there are other things we don't want you to see. This is our job, we come and we go. If I had it my way, we would be here today, and gone tomorrow." Tsunami pursed her lips as she listened to Naruto speak. "Your father hired us Tsunami-san, and lied to us. So we should not be trusting you Tsunami, not the other way around. It is blatantly obvious that I need you less than you need me Tsunami-san. The only reason I am here, and am dragging my team along is because it is the right thing to do. So take it from me, ninja normally don't give sympathy and we lack honesty but you can trust me or trust nobody."

Naruto stood up, and despite his height, he metaphorically speaking towered over Tsunami at the moment. He walked over and grabbed the blade in the corner and trudged himself back up the stairs.

Tsunami sighed, and poured herself a glass of coffee. She hadn't known that her father had lied about the mission rank. Pretty much everything Naruto had said was spot on. They did need them more than they needed her family. They could very well leave and the bridge would forever remain unfinished. Hopefully she would get another opportunity to talk to the boy. He seemed to be carrying a lot of weight that he didn't expect to have being leader of the team.

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Naruto sighed as he went up the stairs. The house was rather large, despite the community being in poverty. This was likely due to the fact that Tazuna and Tsunami's late husband had built this house right on the lake. He walked up and knocked on the door he and Sasuke shared rather loudly before saying "Meet me in Sakura's room!"

Naruto then walked a couple doors down to the room Sakura and Haku shared. He knew Sasuke would be coming in a few minutes.

However when Naruto walked in he resisted the urge to laugh and pump his fist in the air like a little kid saying, "Jackpot!" Naruto had walked in on Sakura topless, with Hakura behind her using the medical jutsu that she knew to help Sakura to recover.

"Nice Sakura, your nipples match your hair color, and will soon match your face." Naruto said offhandedly. Sure enough, once Sakura was alerted of his presence she flushed red, "Naruto! Don't you know how to knock!" she yelled as she crossed her arms in front of her chest, only to make herself wince in pain.

Naruto smirked, "Nope, I'm an idiot remember?" Sakura only turned redder at him using the names she called him as an excuse for him to walk in on her half naked.

"Dobe what did you want?" asked the Uchiha who had just walked in through the doorway. His eyes were droopy, his hair was pressed down flat and messy. Naruto openly started laughing, "This is too good, I walk in on my teammate half naked, and I find out my other teammate is not a morning person yet he is a ninja!"

Sasuke announcing his presence of course had caused Sasuke to do a rather embarrassing and undignified impression of a former classmate and fall out of her chair. This of course sounded like a good idea in the beginning, but it only served to hurt her more. She laid on the ground groaning.

The resident female doctor in the room, who looked much prettier with her mask off sighed, "Can you please stop startling her, she is lucky she hasn't hurt herself yet." Haku ran a haired through her hair, it was obvious that the ordeal was starting to stress her out.

Naruto sighed, "Sasuke sit down on the other bed, Sakura get your ass in the chair." Sasuke complied, however Sakura threw a pillow at Naruto. "You just want to see me naked you fucking pervert!"

Naruto rolled his eyes and stared at her, "Oh really, you threw the pillow at me, which was your only means of cover." Sakura promptly paled on that note.

She tried to make the best puppy dog look she could muster in the pain she was in, "Can I have my pillow back Naruto?" she said with a pout.

Naruto laughed, "Pretty please?" he asked her with a huge grin. The other shinobi in the room had glints of amusement in their eyes. It was rather funny seeing a shinobi nervous about her team seeing her naked, rather than being healed.

Sakura rolled her eyes, "Pretty please..." she reiterated before getting a pillow dropped on her face.

Naruto sighed, and picked Haku's mask up off her beg and fumbled around with it in his hands, "Anyways Sakura sit your ass down."

Once everyone was situated Naruto began talking. "So last night I sent a letter to Konoha, requesting another genin team with a well trained jounin to help us. They should be here later today. I got the hawk this morning that said that they were on their way. Hopefully they can make it here by dinner and we can get control of this situation."

"Do you know who they are sending?" Asked Sakura calmly, between a wince as Haku continued on with medical techniques.

Naruto shook his head, "Not which team, I know it is a team from our year." the thought of Ino coming made him frown, if she came he was sure Sakura would go on about how he had killed shinobi.

"You should be careful..." Haku began, catching everyone's attention. She was currently behind Sakura working on her lower back and ribs. The girl was beat up. "Gatou is dangerous. He likely already knows that Zabuza is dead, and is hiring another shinobi whose caliber we don't know, but we can expect him to be at Zabuza's level or more. The man has an endless amounts of money, and he wouldn't hire someone known to be weaker than Zabuza-sama after Zabuza-sama just lost."

Naruto leaned back, holding himself up on his arms, "Then what can we do? We all got our asses handed to us out there." 'Well except for me, but why crush the statement with something like that.' his statement had the desired effect. Everyone either flinched or look crestfallen at the statement.

"How do you propose we beat someone stronger than Zabuza? Look at what Zabuza did to Kakashi!" Naruto ran a hand through his hair in frustration. Sakura strained her voice to speak, "Naruto you should show more respect to Kakashi-sensei."

"We are not getting into this now Sakura." he finished with a small glare, which promptly made her shrink back into Haku's expert hands.

Sasuke who had been silent this entire time rose up, "Haku did Zabuza teach you any methods of training that we could use while we wait for the other team to get here?"

Naruto suddenly relaxed, when he was thinking about how they had been beaten before, he didn't take into account the fact that they would have another team along with them this time around.

Haku continued repairing Sakura's claw wound and shrugged, "Well there are basic things like water walking and tree walking. Most of my training from Zabuza-sama was in utilizing my bloodline, and assassination techniques. I am not the greatest front line fighter, because of that."

Naruto raised an eyebrow, as did his team and asked the question all on their minds, "You have a bloodline?"

That happened to hit a cord in Haku as she flinched but none the less held up a needle in front of the group before expanding it into a thing plate of ice before reverting it to a needle and working on Sakura.

Naruto grinned, but for more personal reasons. He wasn't completely sure if she was on his side yet or not. However if she was on his side, he had just obtained someone that would help him, with a bloodline.

"Naruto!" came the screech of Tsunami from downstairs, and it didn't even take long before The four shinobi were rushing down the hall, and jumping the flight of stairs. Some of course more slow then others due to injuries. Naruto was in the Kitchen quickly with his large blade poised at the intruders, until he saw who they were and relaxed.

Haku was still on edge, but after seeing both Sakura and Sasuke lower their weapons, she moved closer to Naruto with senbon between her fingers.

Naruto sighed, "Hey guys..." as he looked over team 10. Naruto was going to greet them before Haku wrapped and arm around the back of his waist and said, "Tell them something only they would know." she said as she glared at Team 10.

Naruto paused before shrugging a bit and nodded, he then held his blade more at the ready than before.

Team 10 were mildly surprised by this and the pineapple haired student finally spoke up, "I was second to last in the academy. Ino always calls Sakura forehead girl, who in turn calls Ino piggy."

Naruto lowered his blade when he heard that 'Spot on.' he thought to himself.

Haku too relaxed once the questions were answered and moved over to Tsunami in the corner, who had fear in her eyes the entire encounter. She was mumbling things like, "All my life I was able to go through living something akin to normal. Then in a couple years everything turns around and I suddenly have eight ninja staying in my home."

Sasuke noticing Tsunami's shaken state frowned, "Perhaps we should go outside..."

The jounin of Team 10, Asuma raised an eyebrow, "Where is Kakashi?"

Sasuke appeared that he was going to answer, but Naruto cut in "He is suffering from chakra exhaustion, he is in the bed up stairs, for now Sasuke is right. We do need to go over what is going on, and Tsunami needs her space."

Naruto then walked outside, which in turn caused Haku to pat Tsunami on the back before quickly moving outside after Naruto. Sakura followed suit, having been crossing her arms in front of her chest this entire time did not do anything for her self conscious. Neither did Ino's comment, "Nice boobs forehead!"

As Sakura seemed to go red and shrink at the comment Naruto shook his head. He quickly removed his jacket as Sasuke and Team 10 were coming out. "Put this on Sakura, and continue working on her, sit her on the fence on the dock." he ordered Haku who in turn frowned before following the command. As she was walking by, she couldn't help but say, "She needs to get used to it. If she can't handle being naked in front of her team, she most certainly wont be able to handle getting naked in front of a stranger."

Naruto nodded in silence, quietly saying, "I agree, but we can't worry about that right now."

Haku went over and put the jacket on Sakura backwards, so it covered her chest. It in addition left her back open to be worked on. Once everyone got situated around by Sakura and Haku on the dock they began the conversation.

"How exactly did your team get here so fast?" asked Naruto with a frown on his face, he had sent the letter just last night.

Asuma took a drag of his cigarette before speaking, "Well when we were called in, we weren't given much mission preparation. The Hokage had pre-made bags for us that contained supplies that most shinobi would take for a standard A rank mission. He told us to get out here as fast as we could, so we ran for three hours before taking a half hour break to hydrate before continuing on in a jog. We had a bit of a hold up at the bridge as no one was there to be able to carry us over. After waiting awhile a boatman eventually came by fishing, and he offered to take us across. My question for you is, how is it that you are all injured save Naruto and... this mystery shinobi."

Naruto ran a hand through his hair, "Well Sakura was clawed up pretty badly by one of the Mist's demon brothers. He was rather angry after..." Naruto paused and frowned before continuing, "I killed his brother... Sasuke got beat up pretty badly by him as well but was able to hold his own very well."

Asuma's eyes narrowed at the implications, "So you ran from the battle? Is that why your not injured?"

Naruto laughed at that, "Well that wouldn't make me a very good future Hokage now would it?"

The comment seemed to boost the moral of Naruto's teammates. Despite the bad situation they were in, the thought of the blonde boasting about how he would become Hokage one day certainly did bring a smile to their faces.

"I was busy kicking the shit out of Haku here who tried to capture me." Naruto said with a huge grin. Haku however flushed in embarrassment remembering the circumstances. She could sometimes beat Zabuza, yet this genin beat the crap out of her and tied her up. She nearly felt like she was being thrown around like a child does with a rag doll the way she fell out of the tree in battle.

That comment however seemed to set Asuma on edge, "Naruto perhaps it would be best if you allow me to question her a bit."

Naruto rolled his eyes, "We are all ninjas here, we know the lingo Sarutobi, no I wont let you beat the shit out of Haku in hopes that she gives you information that we already know. Any of the people she knew around here are already dead, and as for Gatou, well we have yet to really even plan for anything against him yet."

Asuma frowned, "Naruto, I really don't think you can trust a shinobi whose partners you just killed."

Naruto flinched when you put it that way, "Your right, it is a good thing that she is my... prisoner." he thought up relatively on the spot. Asuma raised an eyebrow, but Naruto continued "And as current leader of team 7, I will vouch saying that she has already been interrogated for any valuable information."

The entire Team 10 was mildly surprised at that statement, "Your the leader of Team 7 at the moment?" questioned Asuma. 'That can't be right, the boy was the worst in the academy, for a leader he would be my last choice.'

Naruto scowled when he saw Asuma's expression, "Do you have a problem with my current leadership?" Naruto questioned with a glare. He hated it when people underestimated him, or thought he wasn't qualified for something that he could do.

Asuma looked around at Team 7, Sasuke appeared to be listening to Naruto's words, Haku was currently patching up Sakura's wounds. The kid did appear to have perfect control over his teammates situation. He shrugged, "No, you seem to be handling things fine, it is just a surprise. I would assume that Kakashi would still be in charge."

Naruto paused at that, he didn't expect the jounin to agree with him. "Umm... Alright, well currently we decided to try and build a training regime since we are likely going to be out here for awhile. Zabuza and his men were tough to fight, as you can see how everyone is injured here." he motioned around to the group.

Shikamaru took the opportunity to raise an eyebrow, "Everyone is injured except you..."

Asuma made a move to cover the statement somehow, but Naruto quickly said, "That is mainly because my battles were all rather one sided. I killed the first demon brother because he was chained to the ground. Then Haku underestimated me and got a nice kick to the crotch-

"Ow!" Sakura gasped out as Haku accidentally pressed too hard on a wound.

"Gah I'm sorry Sakura-san!" Haku quickly said, taking a cloth and wiping off a bit of blood going down Sakura's back.

Naruto smirked in amusement, "The final demon brother, due to me having Haku's mask on assumed I was Haku due to his blurry vision. I forced Haku into helping me trick him into thinking I was going to help him and... finished him." A silence washed over the group. When Naruto talked about his experiences, he couldn't help but feel bad. He had used cheap deceiving tactics to win his battles. He always assumed shinobi battles were about who could make the most powerful jutsu. Yet here he was on his first mission, and his battles were about who could trick the opponent into doing what he wants.

Chouji quickly changed the subject and said, "Well Asuma just taught us all tree climbing, maybe we can help you all with that." he suggested between munching on some chips.

Naruto nodded his head, "Alright lets go do that, we can't stand around here talking, lets at least get something done. Asuma can you watch the house and Kakashi?"

Asuma nodded with the cig in his mouth, "Yeah sure, go on get out of here..."

The teams went on, Haku, Sakura, Naruto and Ino being the last to go on. Haku and Sakura went on ahead, before Haku paused for a moment and stopped to talk to Naruto. "Well she is getting better, I am almost done with her injuries." she said quietly.

"When do you think that you _will _be done with her?" Naruto asked with emphasis.

Haku frowned, "I don't know an hour maybe? I am no expert doctor or anything. I just thought that I should give you a heads up."

Naruto nodded silently before giving her a small hug, "Thank you Haku." just because she pledged her loyalty to him doesn't mean he couldn't be nice to her.

Naruto went on ahead, catching up to Sakura to ask her personally how she was feeling all the while Ino confronted Haku.

Ino just opted to glare at Haku for a few minutes as the mist shinobi stared impassively back at her, "I don't know who you are or where you came from, but I certainly don't like you." she said, using her finger pressing on Haku's chest for emphasis.

Haku raised an eyebrow at her, "I don't believe that I care if you like me or not." she said in a much colder voice than what she was used to be talking in. Who was this blonde genin to come at her like that?

Ino glared, "Stay away from Naruto!" she said possessively.

Haku's eyes hardened at that, was she really that blind? Was that what she was going on about. If she really wanted the boy she would have him. Hell she stole husbands from their wives only to kill them later on, all the while without having to remove clothes to do it. Haku leaned in close to the blonde and whispered, "Don't worry about Naruto, if I wanted him, I would take him."

Ino's eyes hardened and she clenched her fists as Haku finished what she was saying, "And there would be nothing that you could do about it..."

Ino swung at Haku quickly with a right hand, but it was to no avail. In an instant a giant mirror appeared where Haku was standed that was harder than rock. Hitting it even hurt her hand. Looking into the mirror Ino wished she saw her reflection, but all she saw was the image of Haku holding her arms around Naruto from behind him possessively. Ino grit her teeth, and the mirror shattered into tiny shards, before the melted through the cracks of the wooden dock.

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Well there it is another chapter. My apologies for anyone that was expecting to be able to read my other story. I am around 6k words into the first chapter, and am deciding how I want to post it.(two parts or one)

This chapter is a bit short, I know some of you may feel like they didn't get a lot done. I feel that way. However I felt it was necessary, however comical or borderline immature I feel I had to write some of the scenes. I wanted Team 7 to bond. If it had to be Sakura topless and Naruto making fun of her all the while keeping a level of seriousness in the room, so be it. I don't want to be a hypocrite, so I wont bash Sasuke and Sakura, (In all honesty, they aren't that bad of characters in general they are normally just executed wrong.)

**Alright from this point down, I will say that you don't technically have to read below if you agree with what I have done in the first place. However if you don't agree, or don't know how you feel about it, my reasoning for character interactions will be below. People complain about my ANs length, but they are long for this fact that I get a lot of people seemingly pointing blame like "KAKASHI WOULDN'T DO THAT!" and I have no way to say why I made him do what he did. So here is where it will go.**

So Yes, Team 10 has joined the scene. Ino and Haku butt heads.

Before we begin, yes I know Haku is a boy in canon, the fact remains that I can't honestly admit to myself that Kishimoto would make such a gender bending character in Naruto right off the bat. I'd much rather watch the Whisper of the Beast amv and just tell myself Kishimoto made a typo.

Haku: I always feel that she is a character with boundless potential because she was effectively made a tool by Zabuza. That being said, the majority of the stories have unified her personality in being a caring girl that can listen to Naruto. Honestly I often see her being a Hinata, that can fight and can pull off the "Hard on the outside, soft on the inside" feel to a character.

That being said, she is often depicted as caring, and can be very compasionate. Hopefully I will be able to bring out a more possessive side to her. I often feel when she is left alive in stories, she seems to get push around by the other characters when in reality, Zabuza said she was stronger than him. Whether it was to psyche out Kakashi or not, it isn't hard to believe, with how her fighting style can fill in the voids in Zabuza's.

So here you have a 14 year old girl, all her life has been used as a tool, no longer a tool. You have a person that I would feel is in need of being someone elses tool, and would join up with the first person to accept her, due to not knowing anything else.

So I wanted to make a darker Haku then the norm, yes I am fairly sure it has been done, but not often. She will be possessive, and protective are a couple qualities I want to stress right now. The others I want to leave as a surprise. Just keep in mind when thinking about Haku, she is likely the strongest person in the household, including Asuma.(In my opinion)

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Ino: I had her relatively quiet this entire chapter, even though she was only in it for a short time. Her part is much more simple than Haku, where Haku was being possessive for deeper reasons. Ino was just being a girl in the sense that She was with Naruto, she kisses Naruto, Naruto is hers and Haku should back the hell away.

People have Hinata do this all the time, if Hinata would do it, Ino certainly would.

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Naruto & Kyuubi: I wanted to add Kyuubi and details on the blade in this chapter with the segment in the morning, but Naruto started to talk to Tsunami instead.

I'm having trouble writing this at times because I feel like I am not staying true to character, Naruto especially. I feel like I changed his character around too much having him suddenly rise up and assume the leader position. It wasn't something I wanted to do, but it just started happening. Anyways, expect to see a struggle for power between Sasuke and Naruto as the story goes on. I don't want to eliminate Sasuke as competition in this story, which many stories do. They just super charge Naruto, have him wipe the floor with Neji and then downplay Sasuke's battle with Gaara by having Naruto criticize it while it goes on. I don't mind the super charging Naruto part, even though I would stop reading the story there. On the off chance that I continue reading, I would stop reading once I see him with no competition.

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**You are all probably wondering since Zabuza is gone, what is going to happen in Wave. I guess it is a bit of a surprise, I mean it is an OC. I haven't gotten complaints about OCs before, so who knows how you will take him. I like his back story, I think you will find that very interesting. However, in reality he is just the "boss level" I have to implement in I feel, the real two key people are going to be who his flunkies are. This is because his flunkies, are going to set up means for a couple interesting characters to take part in the chunin exam and utterly destroy the line up that many people know and love O.O!**

**A CLUE A CLUE!**

**OC first name: Warren, guess the last**

**Chunin exam character 1, first letter in their name starts with a: T**

**Chunin exam character 2, first letter in their name starts with a: K**

**Have fun with that, personally I feel the clues are too easy.**

**Read and Review, first person to guess the chunin exam character names(both) gets a cookie(I will put XXXXX earned themself a cookie) at the bottom of the follow chapter.**

**Whoever can guess the OCs last name, I will do a personal favor for them in the sense of they can decide one thing in my story, or request my to implement something into the story. Nothing foolish please, and I reserve the right to deny it.**

**Anyways sorry for the long AN, till next time.**

**-Bleed**


	6. Don't Get Confused, I Own You

"Hey, Kakashi are you awake?" asked the chain smoking jounin with a frown on his face.

The masked man peered his single eye open and groaned, "This doesn't look like a hospital." The chain smoker could only laugh, ain't that the truth? The room was a spare bedroom in the house, it was relatively clean but no where near hospital standards. Not to mention recovering from chakra exhaustion wasn't fun at all. The only way he could express it was having every muscle in your body feel as if it was ripped and was regrowing. A shinobi with a strong will could easily increase his chakra supply that way, as Chakra was in it's own sense a muscle. The problem would be overcoming the drastic pain that comes along with chakra exhaustion. Pain medication doesn't even help take away the pain.

He pitied the silver haired jounin, and at his bad luck of the draw when it came to a first C rank mission with his team. "Your not in a hospital Kakashi, your team carried on with the mission and brought you back to the clients house."

Kakashi pushed himself up right and stared at the Sarutobi, "I see, so Sasuke took charge and sent the Hokage a letter requiring assistance then?"

Taking a drag on his cigarette, Asuma closed his eyes, "I'm afraid not, it wasn't Sasuke who sent the letter." This in turned caused Kakashi to straighten his posture. "Did Sasuke get injured and Sakura had to send it?"

Asuma felt a bit relieved at that, at least he wasn't the only one who was going to be surprised knowing Naruto had taken charge. "No actually, Sakura and Sasuke both got relatively injured, she was the worst off out of all of you seeing as how you can't recover from poison. Naruto has taken charge, and was the one to send the letter to the Hokage. I don't understand it Kakashi, what have you been teaching these kids, they are working fantastically as a team it would seem but they don't even know tree climbing?"

Kakashi's mind was going a mile a minute, and ignored the comment that insinuated his lack of proper training, or odd choice of training. "How was it that Naruto has taken over? I specifically told Sasuke to take charge if something happened, and if not Sasuke than Sakura."

Asuma frowned, 'So the team went against a direct order from their leader?' he though slowly letting that sink in.

"Better yet, how the hell did Sakura recover from poison?" Kakashi asked in surprise.

Asuma ran a hand through his hand and scanned his eyes along the wooden floor before speaking, "Well, It would appear that Naruto has taken hostage of Zabuza's former apprentice. It is strange, she seems almost blindly loyal to him. The thing that puzzled me about the entire thing, is I stayed to watch the team as they went off to do tree climbing. Haku is over protective of Naruto, and oddly enough my student was being borderline possessive of the boy."

Kakashi looked out the window at the side of the room, to spot the group of shinobi down by the shoreline of the house climbing trees. That was rather smart, to keep the house in view in case something happened on either end. They were easy to spot as well, with Naruto wearing bright orange and Sakura wearing pink. Kakashi pursed his lips behind his mask, 'I was going to reprimand Naruto the other day for his choice of clothing, and then I look around and Sasuke is wearing blue, Sakura is wearing pink, Yamanaka is wearing purple. Was I really being that blind that I was singling out the mistakes with Naruto that numerous shinobi his age were making?'

"That doesn't explain to me how Sakura is okay though Asuma." Kakashi said with a sigh.

Asuma grit his teeth and squinted his eyes as he put out a cigarette in his hand. "Haku." he gasped out, "She took to healing Sakura, I would assume on Naruto's personal order to her."

Kakashi sighed, he needed to speak to his team. He needed to talk to them about following orders, and figure out what to do about Haku. "Asuma can you get me some crutches, I want to go check up on the team _personally._"

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"Son of a bitch!" Naruto yelled in frustration slicing the giant blade he held into the tree before him. Everyone around his was practicing tree climbing, except for Ino, Sakura, and Haku. Ino was busy cheering on Sasuke, and giving him tips which only served to grate on his nerves. He didn't even say thank you, even though it was with Ino's help that he was progressing.

Naruto had tried asking Sakura for help with it since she practically got it in one go, and then felt to tired to do it again. Whether this be because of her chakra reserves, or her recovery he didn't know. The thing that annoyed him was that Sakura than went on to tell Sasuke any tips that she could give him, but when he asked she said "You just need to focus Naruto."

'Yeah... focus, this is utterly retarded." he thought in annoyance. Shikamaru and Chouji had already gone to the water once Haku had told them about water walking. He didn't want to walk out and onto the water just to try and get any tips out of them.

Ino had taken to giving Sasuke tips, she knew that she wanted to help Naruto. However Sasuke was a deeper subject with her. It was not just a cute boy with the looks, and money. He was the basis of the rivalry between the two of them. If she gave Sakura an inch and went off to help Naruto over Sasuke, Sakura would come in and give 130 percent into helping Sasuke. That would easily make her lose this struggle for Sasuke's affection between the two of them.

This of course why she was currently mugging Haku with the deadliest glare she could muster. The girl wasn't in the middle of this rivalry, so she was just free to observe the situation. She could tell by the look in her eyes, as time went on Haku gained a better understanding of the situation. Thats why Ino was torn right now.

Haku had told Sakura that she was done for today, and they would continue tomorrow with the remainder of the healing process. Haku took that moment to go over to Naruto and smile,

"Naruto-sama?" she asked with a bright alluring smile on her face.

Ino wanted to vomit as she watched, and heard the interaction between the two. 'Who the hell does she think he is, 'Naruto-sama?' Ino wanted to pull the girl's long hair and drag her to the floor. 'Putting herself out there like a slave.' Ino could only scowl.

"Do you want me to help you with tree climbing?" She said tilting her head into his line of view. It was rather cute due to the fact she was taller than him.

Naruto sighed as he looked up at the tree, "Fine what help can you give me?"

Haku darted a look to Ino over with Sasuke, who looked positively murderous. Haku however felt rather giddy at the fact that she was getting this reaction out of the girl. It was her fault that she decided to become possessive of something that wasn't hers in the first place, right?

She moved behind Naruto and began massaging his shoulders as she rested her chin on his shoulder, "Well from experience..." she said quietly, which caused Ino to shift uncomfortably and move to the otherside of where she was standing with Sasuke, and now Sakura who had moved over to him when she was done with Haku. She moved closer just enough to hear, but not enough for it to be overly suspicious.

"I believe that you would benefit from the use of your shadow clones. They have so many uses, some being more... _practical_ than others." At the moment she said practical she pressed the front of her body up to Naruto's back. It was a rather unexpected move to Naruto, so he turned rather red at the close unexpected contact.

Ino grit her teeth and tried to think of anything that would break them up, and promptly fell backwards onto her ass, with a rather loud "Ouch!"

Naruto split apart rather quickly from Haku at that, and went over to pick up Ino far faster than anyone else attempted to. Ino sighed as Naruto help her up and shot a smirk to Haku, who in turned smiled back and mouthed '_He will be back shortly.' _Ino pressed her lips together at that and frowned, she faked a stumble when Naruto pulled her up. She fell into a hug with him briefly before backing up, "Thank you Naruto." she tried to make it sound like she didn't care in front of Sakura and Sasuke. She just didn't think about how that would make Naruto feel.

The said boy pursed his lips and walked back over, "What were you saying Haku?" this time he was a few feet from Haku. This of course caused Ino to stick out her tongue at Haku childishly and throw up a peace sign. Haku just rolled her eyes, "Naruto can you come over here, I want to show you the footing I usually used when I was learning this." Ino's face instantly turned back to her mugging when she saw Haku rub her hand down Naruto's leg and stick his right foot to the tree.

"Alright Naruto-sama, I need you to channel chakra to your feet until you stick. You need to channel the correct amount so that you don't fly off or anything of that sort. Take your time, there is no need to rush. _I will make sure you have this done in the next hour_." She made that statement rather loud and let it linger in the air. Sasuke and Naruto had been scaling the tree constantly the past three hours. Sasuke had been progressing consistantly up the tree, while Naruto hadn't been able to make it more than eight feet up without flying off. Of course this was likely due to Sasuke gaining insight on what he should be doing, and having better control than Naruto.

Naruto was a bit surprised when Haku had said that, but it brought a smile to his face regardless. Merely the fact that someone was willing to help him with this was enough motivation he needed to do it. He now couldn't let Haku down with her helping him. A new determination flashed over Naruto's face and he grinned.

_"Pick me up Naruto, sticking wood in me isn't very nice before we really has a conversation."_ came a seductive voice with a hint of humor in it.

Naruto visibly scowled when he heard the voice and rubbed the back of his neck.

_"I didn't stick any wood in you Kyuubi." he mentally scowled at that, "Nor will I ever fox. I stuck you in wood."  
_  
An enticing laugh came from deep within, and he could almost feel the fox smile, "That doesn't change the fact that you want to stick wood in me Naruto-kun."

Naruto's eyes widened as the world seemed to become the definition of chaos around him. The trees around him had turned ghastly and aflame. The water had darkened to a nearly black color, reflecting the flames around him. Fish had risen to the top of the water. A large fissure had gone right through Wave, from what he could tell. It looked like the fissures on his blades, red hot lava, slowly moving in the fissure.

His friends were no longer around, it was him in the barren chaos of the former forest he was in. He spun around rather panicked at the sight only to come face to face with the same gorgeous, enticing, seductive fiery red headed woman. She winked at him and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek before his world turned back to normal.

Naruto held the place where she kissed, similar to a kid who shook a stars hand and claimed he would never wash it again. Naruto was in a daze.

Haku frowned, there was a heavy chakra spike, and a genjutsu placed over Naruto for a moment and then it suddenly vanished. Judging from his look on his face, she knew she was right. It was just a matter of how it happened. "Naruto... we need to continue." she said with a frown.

That snapped Naruto out of his daze with wide eyes, and he promptly nodded, "Right, sorry." he turned back to the tree and began to regulate his chakra, all the while talking to the fox.

_"You better not do that crap again Kyuubi!"_

_The woman could only chuckle, "You loved it Naruto, you should have seen your face. You were... just eatable."_

_Naruto scowled at Kyuubi's choice of words, "Yeah yeah, your not tastin' nothin'."_

_There was a moment of silence, "We'll see... Now pick me up."_

_"I'll pass." Naruto said rolling his eyes. He would pick the blade up on his own terms. Imagine his surprise when Kyuubi said,_

_"Okay."_

The blade flew into Naruto's hand, getting pulled out of it's spot in the tree and flung up into the air as if it was flying. It stuck in at the top of the tree and Kyuubi whispered to him, _"If you don't get the blade out of the tree in your next three attempts, the forest will burn."_

Naruto's eyes hardened, despite the fact that everyone stared at the blade in wonder, even Haku who now only had more questions for Naruto. Naruto with even more determination than before grit his teeth and made several clones.

_"I knew I could get you motivated like the women who would do anything for you. Personally I like the black haired one, she's dangerous. Danger is always fun."  
_  
Naruto grit his teeth as his clones began to run up and down the trees to the best of their ability, some falling and breaking. However it was all knowledge for Naruto to sort through.

_"However remember Naruto-kun, no matter how many women you get with, I will always be the main woman for you because it is simple. I own you."  
_  
Naruto grit his teeth as the last clone fell to the bottom of the tree and popped into smoke. Naruto sprinted at the tree, and stuck to it as if he had been doing it for years. It was amazing what proper motivation could to to a person. He got to the top of the tree in one go, and tugged the sword out of the tree, and jumped off.

Landing in a crouch Naruto sighed as he looked up and silently said,

_"You don't own me."_

_Laughter for a good while was the foxes response, which gave Naruto the time to look at Haku's surprised face. That was until Kyuubi responded,_

_"Oh really? Look down."_

The ground was scorched where he had landed.

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A man sat down under the large tarp overhanging a fruit stand. The majority of the fruits were no longer good, but things were tough in the land of waves.

The man sat with a large black cloak over his body, and rested up against a wall with a sheathed sword between his legs. The man had on a straw hat that was casting a shadow over the man's face. Upon closer inspection the man had blond hair, with a bit of hair on his chin. He had an athletic build, and there was part of a red sash visible from a spot his cloak wasn't covering. The man appeared to like belts judging from several of them on each of his knee high black boots. Even his blade had a belt around the sheath.

He strummed a guitar in front of him and gave began to sing with a sorrow filled voice, one filled with guilt and regret.

_Is there anybody going to listen to my story?_

_All about the girl who came to stay_

_She's the kind of girl you want so much it makes you sorry_

_Still you don't regret a single day..._

Not many that had walked by had paid him major mind as he sang that short bit, but those that did could tell that the man had lost something. It was a shame that everyone else in the town had lost something as well, maybe if that wasn't the case someone would be willing to listen.

The man stood up, leaving his large cloak behind revealing his cape like jacket that covered his upper body, but in the back went down near his feet. He calmly walked away, sword strapped to his waist and guitar sealed inside a scroll.

The back of his black cape like jacket had a Kanji on the back of it.

_The Kanji for Peace._

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Anyways this chapter came out a lot sooner than expected. That being said it is considerably the shortest chapter that has been released yet. However that being said I think you will like it. It is short mainly because when I began writing the tree climbing scene, I really wanted to stop it at Naruto scorching the ground. However I had been listening the the beginning of Girl over and over and I thought nothing of it until I paused for a moment and thought about the first bit of the song.

When I did it described part of Warren perfectly(If you didn't guess who he was already, my apologies for the spoiler.)

MasterMike89 was the first to get Warren Peace, I honestly thought a lot more would get the two characters personally. So yes we have decided if I ever am stuck on a tipping point with something in the plot, he will give the go ahead on which thing I should push for. (This is because he said he didn't really know what he wanted to do off the top of his head, and he would see if he thinks of anything.)

I trust yah though :).

As for the characters, jeez... seems quite a bunch of people didn't get this, I was surprised. I wasn't aiming to rework characters such as Kin and make them stronger. I planned to use existing characters. Someone already answered it, but since this was a relatively short chapter I will give everyone a second chance to guess before I say who the two are. They are canon.(Note someone already gave the answer in a review, even though to me it was a shot in the dark since he went bye last name, and I was going by first name lol he got lucky _ _)

**From here on like last chapter is just reasoning and me saying Read and Review. Read if you want to, it answers questions. However it is not required. There may be a leaked spoiler below as well so read at your own risk.(spoilers are not intentional)**

Anyways more of a look into Ino and Haku's rivalry beginning to come up this most recent chapter. I wanted to really show the line where Haku is just more experienced than Ino in many things. Whether it be being a shinobi, to having a better physique(I didn't touch on that, but I would feel that it would be safe to say that it's the case since Haku has a couple years on Ino). She has had practice at seducing men, and knows all the buttons to get what she wants. Like she said if she wanted him she could have them. I really wanted to have Haku give off the feeling she was marking her territory.

At the same time I wanted Ino to struggle between trying to find her own line to draw herself, and her having to grow up. Unlike Haku who has been mature years before Ino had even become a shinobi, Ino is still growing up and finding herself, in the sense that is what all the characters do during timeskip. A prime example to a character finding themself is Sakura.

Ino is trying to figure out if it is worth it to chase after Sasuke and win this rivalry between Sakura and herself, while she watches a boy she is growing to like slip through her fingers right in front of her eyes.

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Asuma and Kakashi have a bit of a chat, Kakashi will be confronting them this next chapter(possibly...)

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Kyuubi, she was well interesting. I felt that you all had questions about the blade, and to be frank I have answered none as of yet. However I did feel that with Naruto getting a new blade, Kyuubi should of said something last chapter and she didn't. So I wrote her in near the end of this chapter. I am questioning if it was proper execution or not.

However Kyuubi is fun because, hopefully none of you can really tell what she is going for. I hope none of you can gather a goal from her actions just yet, or maybe not her goal because her goal can be freedom? However I want you all to feel like you don't know how she is going to get there, you just have a feeling she eventually will and everything will be tipped on it's head once she gets it.

I also wanted to show that Kyuubi is different than the other girls that currently are having their own little battle over Naruto. To Kyuubi there is no "ands, ifs or buts" there is just 'You are mine Naruto' now this can be as vague as she wants it to be such as, "You are mine but I don't care if you sleep with the blonde or the brunette, but remember first and foremost you belong to me." Naruto gets no say in this, and I hope to show that more and more as we go on. To me it is a nice change, most stories you have this Naruto who is strong and goes on about how he needs to save Konoha from a ninja war or bring Sasuke back or beat the Akatsuki. They all have him being dominant. Where as with Kyuubi, she lives her life being the most dominant thing in the world. To me it provides a nice break, and it is really fun to write. (The only place you can see Naruto not being dominant is Yaoi or fics that are borderline porn, I just decided to do something different while keeping the canon's characters sexual orientation in tact lol X.X).

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I hope you all enjoyed the chapter, despite it being short.

Yes I know, if you complain about the AN, you didn't have to read the majority of it. It is just there to answer questions of viewers. I have gotten complaints and compliments about it, so if you complain about it, skip over it. Don't let something bother you that you can choose to ignore.

Have fun all, read and review.(I'd prefer reviews that are more than something like "Update soon" like something I should work on, or something you would like to see or something you didn't like please.)


	7. Playing With Fire

I normally don't put anything up at the top of stories besides the disclaimer which I have already posted, and everyone knows I don't own this.

However I will respond personally to Kwisatz Haderach right now, and anyone else who doesn't like my AN length.

Plain and simple don't read something you don't like. I have said it in practically all my stories, it is there for people who have questions. Therefore I am not stuck responding to a bunch of questions, and if people are fully informed about my decisions, they can give proper ideas to further the storyline.

So I normally don't call people out, but after I specifically addressed it last chapter, and I get a comment on it now is frustrating. So I will lay it down for everyone.

ANs at the bottom of the chapter are around 1k in length, period. You don't like that, don't read the last 1000 words of the chapter. If you have questions go ahead. To people who say I am lying about my word count, well in the nicest way possible. You are all still here reading the story, if you want to be overly critical with how long the story it, take 1k words off the length per chapter in your own head. However I really don't see the point seeing as how I have been updating the story relatively quickly regardless. This isn't pointing fingers or calling names, it is just addressing a issue, once again that I hope wont be brought up in this chapters reviews.

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"You seriously expect me to believe that Naruto was just able to scorch the ground when he jumped out of the tree? Better yet, Sasuke! How was he able to beat you up that tree, he should of by far had the hardest time out of everyone in Konoha trying to get up that tree due to his chakra supply." The silver haired jounin said with a frown. He was in pain and was frustrated, he felt like his team was lying to him, he knew over a thousand jutsu and he had never heard of one that scorched the ground upon impact with your feet. Especially something virtually sealless, he didn't want to think Naruto was adapting more and more of Kyuubi's power but so far this was unexplainable.

"Really Kakashi-sensei! Naruto was having such a hard time getting up the tree, and then he made it in one go once Haku decided to help him." Sakura said trying to convince her sensei they weren't lying to him.

"Wait a minute, you never mentioned Haku before?" He asked as his eyes narrowed slightly. Sasuke however took that time to cut in,

"She didn't really have time to help him, she just had him stick his feet to the tree and find the right amount of chakra. Then he grabbed his sword, which pretty much flew up to the top of the tree. I guess he really wanted to get it down or something, which motivated him to get up the tree." Sasuke had a scowl on his face once he finished saying that. It insinuated that Naruto made it up the tree before him, and while that was the truth it wasn't something he ever wanted to be known to the students that were in his graduating class.

Kakashi swapped a crutch into his opposite hand to run a hand through his hair before taking the crutch back. "Alright, well I am interested in a few things, you will answer me is that clear?"

At the silence of his students Kakashi decided he wouldn't fish for a "Yes sensei!" or something along the lines, he just wanted to get to the bottom of the situation.

"How did Naruto get that blade?"

Sasuke sighed, "After you passed out in the water, Naruto swam out to keep you from drowning, while I watched over Haku extract the poison from Sakura's body. Once he set you down, I think he felt Zabuza's sword would just go to waste staying on that tree, so he took it."

Kakashi was getting rather frustrated at his team's lying, "This is not the time to be messing around, the blade looks nothing close to Zabuza's former blade, I would know he nearly killed me with it." not one of his most pleasant memories either. The sight of the giant cleaver coming down on his head was not a pretty one.

Sasuke crossed his arms over his chest, "What exactly is the point of asking us if you don't bother to believe us when we tell you the truth?"

Kakashi paused once Sasuke said that, was he really over thinking things that badly? However if what Sasuke said was true then, that would mean Naruto somehow changed the blade. The question is how exactly.

"Alright, I apologize, I'm in a lot of pain right now and am rather frustrated that my specific chain of command was completely reversed when I was injured." he let his words linger for a moment, hoping they would sink in telling them not to do it again. "Anywhere where are Naruto and this Haku woman?"

Sakura appeared to cheer up at the mention of Haku, which Kakashi caught. "I know where they are." she said rather cheerily. She was likely going through a phase some patients go through when their doctor saves their life. It didn't appear to be anything fanatic however so there was no need to worry.

The group followed Sakura out to the clearing by the lake, where Naruto, Team 10 and Haku were all located. Most of them were soaking wet, besides Haku who had a glint of amusement in her eyes. However the scene was a strike at his pride.

She saved his students life, and she taught his students more than he had taught them in about a day in a half that he hadn't taught them in weeks. The thought was annoying in it's own right.

Naruto was standing shakily on the water, with several clones surrounding him doing the same, which caused Kakashi to raise an eyebrow. He was surprised that Naruto would do such training, he almost felt as if his student was cheating. However then he would have to resort to calling himself and an entire clan, even his best friend a cheater. Still nonetheless it was an impressive feat, he was surprised that he wasn't using more clones.

Kakashi closed his eyes and thought to himself for a moment. If Naruto used this tactic, he could advance faster... the problem falls in the fact that he may advance so fast that he would pass his students so much that they would all feel behind and feel weak in comparison. He didn't know whether he should support the growth of his student, or hold him back to keep him in check with the growth of his team. To him it was a tough decision, he saw a lot of himself in Sasuke, and he naturally expected the boy to succeed to greatness relatively quickly under his guidance. However exceeding to greatness means nothing if every day of training a genius does, a hard worker does a fifty-day equivalent in the same amount of time.

Kakashi pursed his lips behind his mask as he repeatedly saw Haku catch Naruto if he was going to slip and fall into the water. It was obvious who the original was, "Sasuke, Sakura, go ask team 10 how to start this exercise. It is another basic chakra control exercise, you all will do fine. It would be best to test yourself by the edge of the lake and trying to find the correct amount of chakra to keep yourself afloat."

Sakura seemed to realize instantly what Kakashi was getting at, yet said something that caused Kakashi to try and mask his displeasure, "Like Haku had Naruto stick his foot to the tree to find the proper amount of chakra before running up it right?"

Kakashi closed his eyes and chuckled, "Yes... like Haku." he finished the last part and quickly began to carry himself out there as best as he could. Kakashi continued to carry himself to the water, and with a feat of impressive chakra control, kept himself and the crutches on top of the water as if it was solid ground.

Haku turned her shoulder as she saw Kakashi approach, it was relatively surprising that the Jounin appeared to be having no trouble at all keeping afloat on the water. Part of her hated the man for what happened to Zabuza, but another part of her told herself that if she got into battle with Kakashi here and killed him, despite Naruto's apparent dislike of the man, Naruto would hate her. Thus goes the cycle of hatred in the shinobi world. Shinobi get even.

"You do realize that Naruto would likely have an easier time learning if he had the chance to try and find the necessary chakra amount to stay afloat before going out this far into the lake." Kakashi said with his casual eye smile. This of course nearly caused Naruto to slip.

Haku had caught him before he even got knee deep in the water, but that didn't stop him from being annoyed. "What the hell? You mean that all this time I wouldn't have to of been freezing my ass off? Haku why didn't you tell me about that?"

Haku rolled her eyes, "Personally, I learned this over a hot spring in the winter. Every time I fell in it would feel as if my skin was on fire. I learned this relatively quickly. Maybe if you dispelled your shadow clones already you would be done?" Haku said as she tossed Naruto up only for him to shakily land on his hands and knees in the water.

"Hey pick me up, that shit isn't funny I am just about to dry off!" he said unable to look at either of the seasoned shinobi behind him.

Kakashi grinned and booted Naruto in the back causing him to fall face first into the water, and he quickly returned to his injured position. Haku while finding the scene rather funny finally realized the true meaning behind it when Naruto came up sputtering.

"What the! Who kicked me?" he yelled in frustration, now soaking wet and trying to pull himself out of the water. Kakashi raised his only visible eyebrow, and lifted a crutch.

"I'm in no shape to be even moving my legs for more than walking Naruto, who do you think kicked you?" Haku proceeded to purse her lips and give Kakashi a glare when Naruto turned to her. Kakashi in turn gave her a classic eye smile before speaking.

"Haku would you mind helping Ino and Sakura while I speak with Naruto. Give you some time to cool off, they are down a ways near the shore under the shade."

There was an underlying message behind Kakashi's words, which Haku had picked up on. It wasn't a suggestion, it was an order. The challenge she gave him when she looked in his eyes was blatantly clear to any seasoned shinobi.

_You're in no position to be ordering me around._

Naruto sighed, he didn't notice the hidden message however he did notice Haku's apprehension. "Don't worry Haku, they probably need more help than I do at the moment, especially Sakura since she just started I think. You should go help them." he finished his suggestion to Haku with a smile that shattered any apprehension Haku had. If she was going to serve Naruto better than she served Zabuza, she should at least listen to him. She could virtually travel faster than the speed of sound anyways with this much water around her. Mirror transportation had its advantages. She would just keep Naruto in her sights.

Haku nodded her head, "Alright Naruto-sama." she said quickly, slightly displeased that she had to leave him to help Sakura and Ino, but that was what he wanted her to do so she would do it.

Kakashi raised an eyebrow at the Naruto-sama part. 'Has Naruto really gotten her to be blatantly and blindly loyal to him in this short time?'

"Naruto I need to talk to you." Kakashi said slowly frowning under his mask at what he just saw between the boy and Haku. Naruto merely rolled his eyes at his teacher,

"Yeah I gathered that when you came over here. You rarely talk to me if you aren't reprimanding me about something I did."

Kakashi looked away from the cold truth about his neglect of his student, "You know she is right. You would probably be done with this exercise if you dispelled your clones."

Naruto frowned, "Yeah well I can't be passing out on the job. _I _have been the one keeping the team together," he said putting emphasis on 'I'. "If I appear weak, I am afraid the team may fall apart."

Kakashi's gaze softened at that, 'Maybe I have been underestimating the boy.' He looked around the area with a frown on his face. Naruto had been a better leader to the team than he had been on their first real mission. While he was out of commission, he practically forced teamwork upon everyone. He was able to turn an enemy into a follower but more importantly a friend. He wasn't going to play the ignorant card, if there was one thing the boy really needed in his life it would be friends. That was one of the problems he had been avoiding addressing with Sasuke. The boy believed that he could get by on his own, and would refuse any reasoning that he would try to throw the boy's way. He pictures Itachi as the height of strength in the ninja world, which wouldn't be very far off, but Sasuke's brother does have a flaw in his shinobi way. He has a lot of power, likely more than even himself, but what does he have it for? He has no one to protect, no one to defend. What good is power if you have no one to use it for?

Naruto looked at Kakashi curiously as the man aimlessly looked around. Kakashi eventually turned his head back, "Well you wouldn't be under such strain if you dispel the clones one at a time Naruto. It makes it easier for you to file the information. Sort of like a stream going down a drain rather then a tidal wave that way."

Naruto looked puzzled for a moment, but took Kakashi's advice for once. What could it hurt? One by one clones popped leaving a fogginess over the water for a moment before disappearing. For Naruto it rapidly became easier and easier for him to stand on the water, as if he had been practicing for days. By the time he was done he could have sworn he could stay on top of the water while doing back flips. The idea of getting a technique such as this so quickly made him gain a huge grin across his face. The idea that he beat Sasuke in doing something by a mile was something that he was proud of.

Kakashi smiled at the amount of joy that came across his face. Perhaps this was the look that Obito would of given if he had ever beaten him at something, besides being a good teammate and a good friend.

"Naruto I was originally going to-"

"Reprimand me for taking charge of the situation, and for bringing Haku along, right?" Naruto cut Kakashi off with his accusation.

Kakashi sighed, "Originally? Yes that was the case. However... I believe I have underestimated you. You have done a lot and kept the team organized, I shouldn't get mad over that. You did a good job." Kakashi felt guilty when the borderline shocked look of surprise came across his face. Was he really that open about how he underestimated Naruto?

Kakashi choosing his words carefully biting on his lips while he thought over how he wanted to say things, "This probably isn't the proper thing to do in these situations but, how would you like to be the designated leader of the team when I am not around, and the designated leader for the remainder of the mission?"

Naruto's eyebrow raised at being the designated leader of the team when Kakashi was away, but for the remainder of the mission? He had to hold himself from gaping when Kakashi announced that. Not trusting his voice at the moment, he numbly nodded his head.

He swallowed some spit that built up in his mouth and took a deep breath before speaking, "Well... umm, I just have to ask why Kakashi...sensei." He added the title as a late after thought. If his supposed sensei was going to recognize him and admit to his mistake and try to make up for it. Than he would try to put aside their differences and try to move forward.

Kakashi swallowed his pride and with a sigh he spoke, "Well it is fairly apparent that you have taken charge of this mission and have been doing a fantastic job. With Zabuza out of the picture, and no danger I can foresee in the future, I believe I can trust your judgment with training the teams as a group and you have my full support. However I would like for you to keep me posted on any actions you choose to do."

Naruto took a moment to let that all sink in and nodded, "Alright..." he said slowly with a frown on his face still not believing it to be completely true.

Kakashi nodded and turned to walk away, letting one last message drift through the air on his walk back to the house, "Be careful Naruto, I was going to talk to you about Haku, but now I just don't want to see you getting hurt."

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"I don't get why you are so upset Ino? So what if Haku helped Naruto?" Sakura asked as she was quickly getting the hang of the water walking. She was having a harder trouble balancing than she was controlling her chakra output to keep her above the water.

"So what? Sakura how can you say that? Naruto is your teammate. Suddenly this girl is just going to come in here and start feeling all over Naruto? Did you see the way she rubbed her hand down his leg? The way she was massaging his shoulders and whispering in his ear? Ugh!" Ino picked up a rock and chucked it as far as she could out into the water. The rock making a rather large splash, and Ino sat herself down on a rock near where Sakura was practicing.

Sakura stayed silent as she listened to her friend and rival rant about the girl. "I just don't get it, why would Naruto even let her touch him like that, he has always been so clueless about girls before!" she exasperated with a frown.

Sakura shrugged, "I don't think she was making a move on him or anything Ino, this is Naruto we are talking about. I mean sure, he's been clueless about girls, I mean, look at Hinata. She has liked him for years and Naruto hasn't noticed. I mean I guess it is partially her own fault for not bothering to approach him... but still. Even if she was making some sort of move on him, I doubt he knew how to react if a girl started to touch him."

Ino scowled, "No! He would know what to do." she threw another rock into the water. Sakura had turned to Ino with a raised eyebrow when she said that.

"How do you know that Naruto would know what to do Ino?" questioned Sakura. She had stopped standing on top of the water, and opted to stand on a rock nearby in shallow water in case her concentration slipped.

Ino frowned, she couldn't openly say something about what happened between the two of them. Ino shrugged, "I just have a feeling that Naruto would know what to do if a girl ever came on to him, he did make that ridiculous henge after all." Ino lied through her teeth.

Sakura frowned, "Why are you so interested who comes onto Naruto anyway? Have you finally given up on going after Sasuke?" Sakura finished that thought with a piercing gleam in her eye. The thought that she may finally no longer have to compete for Sasuke's affection...

Ino promptly squashed that theory though when she said, "As if Forehead, I am just annoyed... that... that Naruto is getting attention from this random girl yet Sasuke isn't giving me or you any attention." it was a half-truth. She wasn't just annoyed, she was borderline furious that Haku had moved in and was effectively taking Naruto away between her fingers. She made sure that she was going to talk to him one of these days while out in wave.

Sakura sighed, "Look Ino, Haku may have some rough spots, but she saved my life I don't think there is anything to worry about with her she is a strong kunoichi. You should be happy that Naruto has someone like her possibly going after him." Sakura flinched a bit on the inside. She used to remember when she was the target of Naruto's affections. That seemed to stop once they had gotten on a team. Now Naruto could look at her nearly naked and not even be fazed. The thought made her shrink a bit. No one even seemed phased by her being naked, not Naruto, not Sasuke, nobody.

Ino threw another rock out to the water, "Whatever, I don't think she is good for him. I think that she may be too skilled of a kunoichi for Naruto."

Haku had snuck up on the pair and said calmly after Ino's statement, "Yes well I believe that a skilled Kunoichi would only help further Naruto-sama's progression as a shinobi. Not to mention you are both right, I am far more skilled than either of you or both of you combined for that matter."

Ino turned around with a glare, 'great the person I least wanted to see... at least since she is here it means she isn't with Naruto.' she thought with a frown on her face. Sakura seemed to address her thoughts when she said,

"Haku! I thought you were helping Naruto?" Sakura asked, surprised that the shinobi had snuck up on the two of them. Mildly afraid due to the truth in her statement and idly wondered how long she had been listening in on their conversation.

"Naruto-sama appears to be finished with water walking." she motioned a ways down the lake where Naruto was talking to Kakashi after having dispelled his clones. He was hopping up and down on the water perfectly fine.

Ino believed that Naruto was done, he got tree climbing done relatively instantly the second Haku started helping him. That of course only served to frustrate her more. She was helping Sasuke for at least an hour, and while he made progress he didn't get anywhere close to getting up the entire tree in one go. The image of Haku's comment moments ago sank in about her being better than her and Sakura combined. She crushed the idea and quickly asked, "Why do you call him that?"

Haku gave a fake smile, "Call who what Ino-chan."

Ino grit her teeth but tried to remain calm, "Don't call me Ino-chan, and you know what I am talking about. Why do you call Naruto 'Naruto-sama'?"

Haku chose to not look at Ino when she responded, trying to be blatantly disrespectful. She walked out on the water, allowed a foot to sink a bit when it came near Ino allowing a bit of extra water to splash onto Ino. "Simple, I pledged my allegiance to Naruto-sama, and I shall treat him how a person like him should be treated."

Ino forced herself to smile as she ground out, "Oh so your his slave then? I understand."

Haku had to fight down the flinch, it was one thing to be thought of as a shinobi tool. All shinobi of a village where tools of the Kage's, an extension of a Kage's will. It was a low blow for Ino to call her a slave and she knew the girl knew it as well. There was a fine line between being a female slave and a tool.

However opting to take the bait, and rework the conversation in her favor. She wasn't about to let a foolish girl who couldn't decide which boy to chase try and run this conversation. "I wouldn't call myself a slave... I have given my allegiance to him however, so like a shinobi of a Kage I am an extension of his will. Similar to how you genin do your ummm d-rank missions for your Hokage. However, I guess if I wanted to delve deeper into it, I guess I am the closest person Naruto has ever been with in life so far."

Ino picked up a rock, she just wanted Haku to give her a reason to throw it at her, "I really doubt that. I am sure that there have been people around Naruto that have been closer to Naruto then others. I am sure there may even be those that have been with him on a more intimate level."

Haku paused at that, she didn't have a direct comeback to that. The message was clear as day, but Sakura was forcing it to be explained.

"What do you mean intimate level Ino?" Sakura asked eyes wide, was she really implying that Naruto could already be going around having sex at their age? Hell the only thing she had close to any sexual activity was when she spent the night over at Ino's and they practiced kissing. 'Not one of my fondest moments looking at how we act with each other today.' she thought with a frown.

Ino maintained Haku's gaze the entire time while talking, "Well you know Sakura, how much do we really know about Naruto. I mean he likely has people that are family to him, but don't forget that bastardized version of a henge. He must of had someone he knew be with him on a intimate level at some point."

There was a silence amongst the girls, Haku and Ino didn't avert their gazes while Sakura let that tidbit of information about Naruto sink in.

Haku was the first to remove her gaze from Ino, this was a battle she didn't expect to lose. She never thought that Ino and Naruto had ever been together on an intimate level. However she wanted this battle of words to finish up on an even note, "Well that is good I suppose, he is rather cute, and he is strong. If he has been intimate before, he will at least know what he is doing."

Ino had thought she won up until that point. She thought that her comment had put claim on Naruto. It had only added fuel to a fire.

Haku sighed, "Well I'm going to go look and see if Naruto-sama needs any help with learning a jutsu or something along those lines. You two appear to have the hang of water walking. Sakura don't strain yourself."

Haku then disappeared by melting into the water.

Sakura was the first to overcome her surprise, "Wow... do you really think she is going to make a move on Naruto tonight?"

Ino had her head held down, "I don't know Sakura..."

Remembering a saying her mother often told her when she had been instigating fights at school,

"You weren't just playing with fire Ino, you soaked the matches in gasoline."

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Naruto sighed, once he had taken up his post as leader of the team, he decided to tell Kakashi that he would go into town. He wanted to see how things were down in the port town that Gatou ran. If he was going to be saving these people, he wanted to see whom he was saving.

He didn't know what he was hoping to see, when he got there he felt at home. The problem was in order to feel at home, then everyone else would have to be miserable, because when he is at Konoha he is miserable but he can't call it home. He is ignored while everyone else goes on with his or her lives. Here, he was at home because while everyone was going on with their lives, they were all miserable. It may have made absolutely no sense to the average person, but to him it made perfect sense. However he didn't want this to last, the more he looked around, the children trying to kick around a deflated ball. He knew he had to help these people, it was just a matter of how.

He walked around aimlessly for the past 10 minutes, before he walked past a fruit stand and heard voice carrying a tune through the surrounding area.

Is there anybody going to listen to my story?

All about the girl who came to stay

She's the kind of girl you want so much it makes you sorry...

Still you don't regret a single thing...

Naruto stopped when he heard the voice, across from the fruit stand inside a small pub/Inn there was a man inside. He was the one singing. Naruto didn't know if it was the right thing to do, but he wanted to learn more about the people he was going to save? Well he had to start somewhere.

He walked up to the blonde man at the table, and sat across from him and calmly said, "I'll listen..."

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Haku had been wandering around the town aimlessly, after she had heard from Kakashi that Naruto was in the town trying to connect and learn more about the people. She wanted to slap the man. Sure Naruto was strong, but if Gatou hired someone else of Zabuza's caliber he could very well be screwed.

She had searched through several areas of the port town. However once she thought all hope of finding the blonde was lost and she would have to wait till he came back to the house to talk to him, she found a head of blonde hair in the window. She knew Naruto must of been the only blonde haired individual besides Ino in the entire village. Everyone in the port town seemed to have dark hair colors, nothing that stood out. The closest thing was a light brown and even that was far away from blond. She tried to block out the idea that there was another similarity between Naruto and Ino, it still stung a bit her loss at the argument. She just hoped her final comment was able to get across to the girl and make her thing.

When she rushed into the pub, she paled instantly. She was hoping to spot Naruto to talking to your everyday village fisherman.

Imagine her surprise when she spotted Naruto speaking to the only man she had personally met besides Kakashi to best Zabuza in combat.

Warren Peace.

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Now since I addressed the AN thing above, I will be jumping into the character actions right off the bat. If you don't like this, kindly don't read it.

If you are still here, hello.

Kakashi: Anyways I was originally going to drag out a feud between him and Naruto for a lot of the story. However I thought that if I went any further I would start to paint Kakashi's character in a far darker light then I would like to. While he wasn't a very good sensei to Naruto in part one, he doesn't deserve to be bashed over it. I see Jiraiya getting held on a high horse all the time even though he neglected Naruto just as much(so it would seem) in part two, if not moreso than Kakashi in part 2.

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Ino and Haku: I will continue to address these two in a pair mainly because their characters will be consistently butting heads as the story goes on. You have a seasoned ninja with a bunch of experience, not pulling any punches against a young fresh genin that is trying to just win this battle, but doesn't really know how to go about doing it. I wanted this chapter to actually show that it is not such a one sided battle as it has the previous couple of chapters with Haku getting under Ino's skin. Ino can do the same, despite the fact that she is frustrated with Haku. Haku however just gets even as you see in the chapter.

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Sakura and Sasuke: Sasuke wasn't really addressed much this chapter, besides some stray thoughts from Kakashi. I said I would try to make them more likable. It is far easier to do that with Sakura than it is with Sasuke, however I am trying. You get to see her be a bit vulnerable internally here, and there will be a progressive build up throughout the story until she gets to her personal turning point(which is usually described as training with Tsunade). Hopefully I will be able to expand on Sasuke more in later chapters.

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Naruto's Sword: Har Har, kept you in the dark again... no I'm kidding. This isn't really intentional, I had an original plan for this story and then suddenly my brain blew up with a new thought trail, so I am just trying to get it back on track with the blade and what it is exactly. I believe I can use Warren as a tool to do that. Yep, use a current unknown to describe another unknown. I just gave you a bunch of information just now hmm?

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Warren Peace: To me, I think you will love this guy. Someone said they would like to see fanart for characters in the story? I'm afraid I don't draw anymore(started to write lol). However I do have a picture I can reference for Warren if anyone is interested I can say who I am physically modeling him after. Just say so in a review, and I will post who next chapter. If you want to let your imagination do the talking I will just keep the picture to myself :).

Anyways as I said, I think you will love the guy, he has a lot of depth to him that I have made for his character. I would honestly like to write a story just about him, but I'm afraid not one reads stories about just OCs in the Naruto universe. So I will have to try and win you over in the short amount of face time I can give for him during Wave.

People have asked will he be a reoccuring character? I doubt it, he isn't going to train Naruto or anything like that. I wont go in too much detail about him right now in order not to spoil anything. I wont say he is going to be directly related to the plot, but you will hear of his actions and the effects they have on people throughout the story.

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Anyways next chapter I don't know whether to make it this length or not, I haven't decided if I wanted it to purely focus on Haku, Naruto and Warren... or more than that.

Whatever I do, hopefully I can get an update out to you soon. I am hoping that I can make Warren a character you can all really like.

Till next time, have fun all, Read and Review.

PS: The chapter may break the "1k limit" on the AN due to the response I felt I had to give at the top -.-'


	8. War and Peace

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto

I hope that you all like this chapter, originally I wanted to make it longer but couldn't X_X lol...

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"Naruto..." Haku said hesitantly. She didn't like being in Peace's presence. Zabuza had told her about the man in various stories from his past, while he was usually known to be a good guy, there was something off about him.

Naruto had spun around when he heard his name being called by Haku. "Oh hey Haku, why are you here. Aren't you supposed to be helping Ino and Sakura?"

Haku stood at the door way doing her best to avoid Peace's gaze, "Yeah but... I think we should go back to Tazuna's house, they were going to start preparing dinner soon." she lied straight to her new master's face. She hated doing it, but she would do anything to keep Naruto safe.

Naruto frowned, "But I was just about to listen to this man's story. I want to learn more about the people I am going to be trying to save Haku."

Haku pursed her lips, "Naruto I don't think this man is native to Wave country." she did her best to stay focused on Naruto when Peace raised his eye and finally acknowledged the girl as someone more than your average shinobi. Not many people outside of the Mist village know of him, and she obviously had to know something with that open ended statement.

Naruto spun around, "Wait so you don't live here?" he questioned the blonde swordsman.

The man stared at Naruto with calculating eyes before responding with his own question, "If I'm not native to Wave would you not listen to my story?"

Naruto frowned, he wanted to learn more about the people of this port town. However he could of approached anyone on the street and asked him or her what happened. Yet he came to this man because he interested him.

Haku prayed that Naruto would say he didn't want to listen and that Warren wouldn't openly move to cut the boy in half. Zabuza called the man violent, but she could never tell if he was telling the truth or if there was an underlying message to his words. Perhaps they were rivals or something along those lines.

Naruto, much to Haku's displeasure shook his head, "No... it doesn't matter, I am rather interested in what you have to say."

Warren leaned back and crossed his arms and gave his formal introduction to the two, "Alright, my name is Peace, Warren Peace." he put emphasis on his name causing it to sound like 'War and Peace' which caused Naruto to raise an eyebrow. He thought he had a weird name on the basis of a maelstrom or a ramen topping.

Haku clenched and unclenched her hands, this was the place she least wanted to be at the moment, but it would be even worse to leave Naruto alone with the man. Once Warren had seen the two of them situated, he leaned forward on the table, his face coming close to the candle that decorated it. The flames licked his face, casting a shadow on the upper part of his face while his mouth was completely brightened.

"_Where do we begin?"_

Naruto listened intently as Warren began to tell the story, he personally was wondering if the story was about him or just this character he is talking about.

_In the Mist Village, a shinobi nation in civil war. A child was more likely to die on the streets before he would even get his education. The families in these times often struggled wondering if they would be able to put food on the table each night._

_The people were in a recession, the single parents of course had it bad pulling in fewer income to support their families. However the majority of the two parent families were severely flawed. Many of the men and women resorted to cheating on their spouses due to them not being able to have enough energy when they got home to do anything of the sort. The people were on a downhill slope, and there were no signs of the people getting back up for a long time._

_The children in the village often joined the ninja academy whether their heart was in it or not. That was where the most money was. This of course turned into more of a problem then a benefit. With the graduation requirements of killing your best friend, who could blame them? You ended up having classes full of children who didn't want to lift up a knife to defend themselves against a shinobi onslaught, and then normally one or two children with no qualms about having to kill the shinobi in the class. It usually ended in a bloody mess, with few children standing, and many being scarred for life._

_The parents didn't care, they continued to send their children in. Saying things like, "Honey it is fine, I know some children have had some bad luck in the past, but our boy is strong."_

_Imagine their surprise when one day a shinobi is on their front doorstep asking the parents to come in and identify the body? Way to boost morale right?_

Naruto already had a pained expression on his face from the things this man was saying. It was almost as if parts of his life were being described by this man. It made him wonder for a moment if he would feel more at home in the Mist.

Haku on the other hand was staying quiet, repeatedly tapping her fingers on her soft skin. She didn't like hearing about the harsher parts of her past, and this man wasn't pulling any punches.

_You often had children on the street, after they had ran from their homes. They would be afraid of what their parents would do if they found out that they had dropped out of the academy, afraid to die. You could see them in the dark alleyways of the towns, usually in groups gathering scraps just to live._

_This however left them wide open, with the hospitals being taken up by the Mist countries soldiers, there was no room for the every day people. Of course disease broke out._

_If you were a shinobi, you could handle it, the disease appeared to have been targeting people with low chakra reserves anyways. The only way for a civilian to get the proper attention he needed was to have a shinobi as a family member fight the chain of command to have their family member be healed. Or they would have to try and leave the village in order to try and find help elsewhere._

_This of course brought about criminals, the only word I could give them off the top of my head. They would gather shinobi that had turned missing ninja from various nations and teach them how to treat the disease._

_The symptoms of the disease weren't pretty, however it was quickly becoming the norm around the civilian populace. Black spots, and pain. Those were the only systems. The doctors in hospitals often said they were contracting a disease that gave them muscle death. A disease that could be simply cured by a chakra transfusion and a small supply of soldier pills. However, no one would help._

_So the civilians, willing to do anything to stop the pain would go to these criminals, with all the money their families have in order to try and buy themselves out of this disease. They wanted to be cured. They would do it, at the cost of their families starving the majority of the time. Not to mention what was going to happen to them if another member in the family contracted the disease?_

Warren sighed as a barmaid came up to the table, she had been listening in on the story seeing as how business as usual was incredibly slow. She had no idea how she was going to pay off Gatou come the end of the month. She was already behind two months, and she wasn't in the mood to become some thug's whore again.

That was why she was rather relieved when the man had given her the amount of money for a regular meal without even ordering anything but water. Of course he had asked her to sit down with them as well, but it wasn't like she had anything better to do.

Once the barmaid was down, and Warren had taken a few sips of his water, he had continued on with his story for his listeners that were entranced with the harsh realities of the Mist Village.

_So on to the main character of this story..._

Naruto raised an eyebrow at that, 'Isn't he supposed to say "Now onto the hero of the story?" ' until he paused. 'Unless he is not a hero.'

_The boy went by the nickname of Peace, rather contradicting with his first name practically meaning "War and..."_

_He had taken to becoming a shinobi on his mother and fathers insistence. His dad was a shinobi while his mother stayed at home taking care of him and the house. She often took to cheating on his father, it was through pure strokes of luck that the man didn't find out. It was punishable by death for a civilian woman to cheat on a shinobi's spouse. Ironically enough, the law didn't go both ways. His father was blatantly always sleeping around._

_It had come to the point that once his father had brought home a woman, that his mother had the last straw. She flipped, and left late in the night unable to withstand the man who she was forced to be with. If only she was able to take her son along._

_So naturally the father took to drinking while the boy went on to participate in the academy. He would come home, only to have to rush to his room in hopes that his father wouldn't spot him and beat the crap out of him. It was no point trying to fight back against a man who wouldn't even feel your punches until he was throwing up the following morning over a toilet._

_Peace had quickly learned that if he didn't want to get beat up, he should start making his way home around five in the afternoon. The man usually drank himself to sleep by 5:30._

_Peace had excelled when going through the academy. He was a year ahead of his soon to be rival Momochi Zabuza._

The name shot up both Naruto and Haku's heads. Naruto was surprised that this man knew Zabuza, perhaps it wasn't such a good deal to stop and listen to a strangers story no matter how intriguing. Haku was mildly surprised, she gathered that the man and Zabuza knew each other, it was merely rather surprising they were rivals.

The barmaid looked utterly confused when she had seen the recognition come across the teenager's face.

_With the death of three of the Mist's Seven Shinobi Swordsmen_, _two of the places being filled by their newest recruits, one being Ayame. The other being a shinobi that grew to be one of the most feared shinobi from the mist due to his blade, Samehada. His name was Hoshikage Kisame._

_As both Peace and Zabuza grew as shinobi, both aspiring to be the shinobi to fill in the last open spot with the swordsmen, their rivalry caused the two to improve in leaps and bounds. It caused one of them to become the youngest of the Seven Shinobi Swordsmen to date._

The air around the room suddenly got thick and heavy as Peace reached to his side and gently set his blade on the table before everyone while sheathed.

_It appeared that Peace had the clear advantage over Zabuza due to his weapon of choice. A living sword that his father had passed down to him, named Noctis._

_Despite Peace disliking his father, the blade was damn good._

The man couldn't help but give a grin to everyone. It was obvious that the blade was one of the man's prides and joys.

_The blade was a long black metal katana with a living red eye near the hilt._

As he said this he unsheathed the blade to show the truth to this statement. It solidified that this truly was his story.

_The blade was often sheathed, for when the blade could see it would constantly be casting genjutsu on it's enemies._

Warren paused for a moment, judging whether or not he should tell the two shinobi before him. He knew that the two of them were the shinobi sent here to protect the bridge builder. However... not one to leave his story open like that he quickly gave a definition directly to the barmaid.

"Genjutsu is a ninja technique that casts illusions over people."

_The blade could take away an opponent's depth perception. It often made them stumble, when an enemy thought he was moving to evade an attack he could very well of been walking right into it. It nearly rendered it's opponents blind, when they think they may of been actually hitting it's wielder they could be swinging aimlessly at air._

_The blade had caused Peace to be a respected shinobi especially among the shinobi swordsmen seeing as how he was only bested by one shinobi, and was equal with another._

_The blade had its counters, those with enough chakra could just overflow the genjutsu. There were those like his friend Zabuza who could simply fight without needing to use his eyes, effectively rendering the genjutsu useless since he relied on sound. Finally there was Kisame's blade in which was Peace's ultimate enemy. Whenever the two fought, Peace's genjutsu would be absorbed by the Shark's blade, granting him near limitless chakra during their battles._

The thought caused him to momentarily scowl.

_However when in real combat, his blade coated in poison finished battles with one stroke that rarely ever missed._

_So as years went by and the Mist slipped farther and farther into poverty. Peace's father had passed away, his mother still had never returned._

A flicker of sadness came across his face at the thought of his mother, but the continuing of his story quickly masked it.

_It was beginning to become apparent that Peace was going to be the shinobi chosen to join the swordsmen. However upon the return of a fling he had in the past came to him with his child..._

_He didn't know what to do, the woman was a one-night stand. In the Mist one-night stands happened all the time, it was a way to keep your head out of the gutter for a half hour each night. He was stuck between pursuing his dream and manning up to take care of his newborn son._

_He chose the later after thinking about it long and hard. No matter how much he wanted to achieve his dream, he knew what it was like growing up with lousy parents. There was no need for him to bring that upon his own flesh and blood if he could prevent it._

_Zabuza went on to join the Seven Shinobi Swordsmen._

_Peace went on to raise his child, with the support of the Shinobi Swordsmen whose respect he had earned. His family had found peace in a village in civil war._

_It didn't last long, despite growing to love his wife, far more than he ever anticipated he would since she was a one-night stand. It didn't stop him from doing what he felt was right._

_That was why when a couple years later after he had stopped running for the Seven Shinobi Swordsmen's seat that when a plot to take out the Sandaime Mizukage came around, he was all for it._

_His unique blade had nearly brought the fall of their corrupted leader and his reign over the Mist. However, in the last moments of battle, the Sandaime Mizukage expressed exactly why he was the strongest shinobi in the mist._

_Three of the Seven Shinobi Swordsmen, Raiga, Zabuza, and Kisame, then himself a swordsman in all but name plunged their blades through the Mizukage. The Mizukage merely laughed. He casually walked throw all five of them as if he wasn't solid, merely phasing through the swordsmen._

_He had strolled over to the window and turned to the four of them before speaking calmly, "Your lives are over gentlemen. I hope it was fun for you while it lasted. Enjoy life on the run, I will be seeing some of you soon." The Mizukage had shot a look at Kisame when he said that, but then disappeared, the only thing left behind was a smoking pile of flesh near the window._

_It didn't look good with them standing by it, and the successor of the Sandaime Mizukage, Yagura, The jinchuriki of Sanbi came barging in ready to fight. So being tired from battle, they did the only reasonable thing left to do, they fled as far and as fast as they could._

_Zabuza was the first to break off from the group, stopping by to pick up his young female apprentice._

Naruto got wide eyed and looked over to Haku when that was said. Haku seemed to pale at the notion that Peace knew exactly who she was. The barmaid paused for a minute before asking a question,

"Wait a minute so you... your?" she pointed at Haku unable to find the right words she wanted to say. Haku nodded with her eyes closed, she had been having trouble staying in her seat listening to her former village's past. Add to the fact that she was directly in the story someone made her want to get up and go. The death of her former Sensei still fresh in her mind, she wasn't having a good time sitting there.

Peace noticed the distress on Haku's face. Despite himself wanting to finish the story, he decided to cut it short.

"I am afraid I have to leave."

Naruto looked like someone had kicked his puppy, if he had one. "What? No! We still didn't get to hear the rest of the story! What else happened to you?" Naruto sounded almost like a kid being read a story before he got tucked into bed.

Warren gave a weak smile, "Well for a long time people said Yagura, the Yondaime Mizukage caught up to Peace and killed him. Others said they fought, and Peace survived. Although... how he lived, and where he traveled from that point is a story for another time." he finished the last part with a small smile.

Naruto crossed his arms over his chest. That was frustrating. The story to him was really good, it was interesting hearing about the troubles of other countries.

The man picked up his blade, and straw hat and vanished in an instant. No shunshin or leaves floating around, just vanished. The only thing left of his presence was a small stack of money in front of the barmaid, with on the front, "Thank you for listening to my story, spread the word please."

The money was at least enough to cover a few months pay, needless to say the barmaid was extremely giddy and would be willing to spread the word of his story to anyone that came in the pub willing to listen.

Naruto stood up and stretched his arms, "Do you think we will ever see him again?"

Haku scowled at that thought, the man put her on edge. She didn't like being around him but the cold hard truth about the situation was,

"Soon."

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Anyways there you have it. I'll once again dart right into the AN since I don't have much to say besides, A: I hoped you liked Warren, and B: Read and Review about what u did and didn't like about him.

**onto the AN**

I had this chapter stay short, originally I was going to add in some more to the chapter, but it just didn't feel right as I continued writing. So I plan just to add it onto the next chapter.

Warren, bleh I hope he didn't seem Mary Sue or whatever, and was a character that you could grow to like. I explained a lot about his past in this chapter, some of you will probably say "Oh well you laid all your cards out on the table, now we wont be surprised."

That is false... I actually have a lot more planned for him, and in truth you don't really see him give off a lot of his personality since he is telling a story. You don't really get to see how he reacts to situations, you just got a feel for where he stood morally about actions that go on in the ninja world. Things you know about him are that he has been close to the shinobi swordsmen, participated in the coup, fought Madara alongside Raiga, Kisame and Zabuza. Then his personal backstory.

I have his future already written and all that is left is for me to implement it over time.

Someone asked, so I will say that Warren's appearance is modeled after Lloyd Reed from fire emblem. You can google him and get a bunch of pictures of him so don't worry about not being able to find it.

I am rather nervous with this chapter to be honest, it really was a lot of my own personal work on a character and interpretation of a village. I just hope that you liked it.

**Anyways please tell me what you liked about Warren's official introduction to members of this stories cast, and what you didn't like. Please be honest.**

**If it turns out that an overwhelming amount of people dislike Warren so far I will write him off quicker then expected, no real point in writing a character in a story that people don't like. So please, even if you usually don't review, review today. I want to see where everyone's head is at when it comes to Warren Peace.  
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	9. I Skip A Heartbeat

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto

chapter length: 3547 words

AN length: less then 1k.

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The dinner table was much more packed than it had been the first night. Kakashi had made his way down stairs this time, and with the added team 10 it almost felt like a large family gathering. Chouji had been forced to refrain from eating too much, and moving onto his personal snacks at the dinner table. Despite it being a mission, they were guests in a town that was in poverty.

Naruto couldn't get the story Warren had told him in his head. He thought Konoha was a rough life? The only way to survive out there seemed to be the most dangerous. He idly wondered if things had changed since his defection from the Mist.

It was also nice that he had gotten to meet the man. It gave him another view on missing nin. He was taught during his ninja training that missing ninja were bad guys and that they were to be captured and brought back to their respective nations for rewards. However he had met missing ninja, and so far one of them raised a young woman that he quickly grew to be fond of. The most recent one he met, after barely talking to him and just hearing his story. He couldn't help but respect and want to get to know the man more.

Naruto sighed at the dinner table, he had too much on him mind and wasn't particularl hungry. He wasn't the only one who wasn't eating however, neither was Kakashi. However he suspected that was because he didn't want everyone to see his face.

The dinner was ruined when Tsunami's son entered the room however. The boy came in and after a rather pathetic introduction the boy turned to Tsunami and bluntly said,

"Mom, they are going to die. Gatou will just kill them as he would anyone else." pointing a finger at no one particular, just the group of ninja in general.

Tsunami of course gasped when her son had said this, "Inari!" she shouted in surprise, she had assumed she had taught her son better.

Naruto frowned at the situation, the old him would of burst out and had gotten angry. However he now, despite feeling a bit bad about his thought process, was trying to find the cruelest and harshest statement he could possibly say to the boy all that while staying relevant. Unfortunately he couldn't think of one, so he did the next best thing he could think of.

"Your a foolish little child..." Naruto began which caused everyone's head to turn to him. Several 'Shut up Naruto.' looks were shot his way which he ignored. Inari had taken to glaring at Naruto at being called out, but Naruto pressed on, "You shouldn't speak of things that don't concern you. We don't need the blatant negativity from you because honestly? It does nothing to further our cause, and we brush it off our shoulder. Perhaps when you grow up you can actually give some decent input. However that time is not now."

Inari grit his teeth, and his hat cast a shadow over his eyes when he held his head down, "Like you would know anything about the people in wave? What can you honestly suggest that we should do?"

Naruto stabbed his chopstick into the remainder of his food and stood up. Sakura who was sitting next to him was tugging rather hard on his arm trying to get him to sit down and not start a commotion. She must have forgot that this was Naruto.

"Again, Honestly? I think that the people of wave should just band together and drive Gatou out, you all outnumber him 15 to one when it comes to forces. You could probably beat him with a village militia armed with sticks. However you, my advice for you is much more simple." he grit his teeth as he continued to try and think of the cruelest things that he knew would leave a lasting impression on the boy. "I think you should run away and cry. Hell I don't care if you hate me, despise me, for all I care you can live your life in the most unsightly way possible. To me until you grow up and accept that you don't have to sit on your ass and try and talk big to the people that are being paid to pick up your trash, you will always be a foolish little child in my eyes."

Naruto stood up and began walking away up the stairs.

Inari gained a look of malice, something that shouldn't of even been able to be on the face of a child. "What would you know! Hey! I'm talking to you!" he shouted as he watched the retreating form of Naruto, "Real men don't run away!"

Naruto paused for a moment at the top of the stairs to mull over the statement, before he continued walking to the end of the hall. Everyone was rather surprised they hadn't heard an outbur-

"Your right! I am just being the bigger man and walking away from a battle I have already won. No use kicking a dead horse!" The sound of a sliding door slamming went throughout the house.

Everyone had appeared to of lost their appetite. They were having a nice dinner until that had happened.

Sakura was the first to stand up, "I am going to go check on Naruto." she said quickly, moving to put her dishes away in the sink before rushing up the stairs. She quickly grabbed a small notepad on a desk at the end of the hall and wrote 'Don't Disturb.' on the paper before rushing to Naruto's shared room with Sasuke. She slipped the paper on the door and made shirt it would stay up with the sliding, and calmly walked in.

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The table had cleared, everyone had moved to put their dishes away, except for Sasuke. He had taken to staring at his reflection in the soup on his plate. He was taking deep breaths as he thought over Naruto's speech slash outburst he had at the dinner table. Words kept flooding into his head as he continued analyzing it.

_"Foolish little..._

_hate me_

_despise me_

_live in a unsightful way_

_run..."_

Many words continued to flood into his head until all he could see was the vision of the saddest moment in his life.  
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"Foolish little brother, if you want to kill me, despise me, hate me. Run, run.. cling to live and survive in an unsightly way. Then someday, when you have these same eyes, come to me"_

He slammed his hand on the table once the memory had finished, thoroughly scaring the people in the nearby vicinity who had been caught unaware. He felt particularly bad when Tsunami had dropped a dish on the floor, shattering it into several pieces. Sasuke pursed his lips, and walked outside to the dock. He needed time to think.

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"Naruto?" Sakura asked slowly as she walked into the room.

Naruto had a pillow over his face and quickly said in annoyance, "If you are here to ask me about Inari get out."

Sakura frowned, "No Naruto that isn't it I came here to talk to you."

Naruto once again mumbled through the pillow, "If you aren't here to give me a strip tease get out."

That earned him a punch in the leg by Sakura, which quickly caused him to sit up with a hiss, "Hey that kinda hurt." he said quickly rubbing his leg.

Sakura sighed as she looked Naruto over as he laid in bed, he seemed unfazed by what he had said to Inari, but that wasn't why she was here.

"What was it you wanted to talk to me about Sakura?" He questioned as he looked her in the face in that dark room. He doubted that she could even see his eyes in this light.

There was a long drawn out pause on her part. She seemed to fiddle with her hands and feet almost like she was a nervous wreck. She quickly sat next to Naruto and turned her back to him to avoid him being able to see her eyes, this was embarrassing enough at it was.

"Do you think I'm ugly?" she quickly asked, it nearly came out in a slur.

Naruto paused and raised an eyebrow, "Your joking right? That is what you wanted to ask me?"

Sakura's shoulders sank and she looked down at her feet. Naruto groaned and sat up, "Of course your not ugly, why would you think that?" he asked with a frown on his face. The Sakura he knew was always confident ever since she became friends with Ino when they were kids.

Sakura muttered something intangible which caused Naruto to reply intelligently, "Huh?"

Sakura took a deep breath as she felt Naruto wrap an arm around her shoulder, "You did Naruto." she frowned once she said that and avoided his gaze.

Naruto tilted his head, 'What the hell did I do?'

Sakura didn't even have to look at him to pick up the unspoken question. "Its just that you no longer ask me out, you don't pay much attention to me anymore, hell you saw me half naked yesterday and you didn't blush or anything? So be honest Naruto, am I ugly?"

Naruto closed his eyes and swung his legs off the side of the bed and sat next to Sakura in the dark, "I can't believe we are seriously talking about this Sakura. Your not ugly, I just got tired of chasing after you and you would always hit me."

Sakura visibly flinched at that, Naruto felt the shake on his arm. "It didn't have to do anything about your looks Sakura. It had everything to do with how you treated me. No offense but you were cute but always were a total bitch to me. I'm not the type of person that would just go for people at face value." 'That and I slept with Ino...' he thought quietly to himself while keeping a small smile on his face.

Sakura pursed her lips as Naruto continued, "As for you being naked Sakura, yes you look good, but right then wasn't the time to be staring at your boobs. We are a team Sakura, it was even said in class that the team you grow up on will likely be the closest people to you that you will ever have in life. I can't be thinking about you like that when all of our lives could of been in danger."

Sakura held her head down and sighed, "Your right..."

Naruto cut in trying to lighten the mood, "Sakura don't worry alright? You are still very pretty, even if you tend to fall on the ugly side a bit." he finished with his tongue sticking out trying to lighten the mood. Sakura went to hit him, but thought over the past five minutes they had been talking. She turned her first to an open palm, and gently pushed Naruto off the bed with a small smile on her face.

Naruto stretched his arms, "Your not ugly Sakura, I likely would still be going after you if you didn't treat me the way you usually do. Maybe sometime down the road things will change, but for now I like that we are actually friends for once."

Sakura grinned, "Oh who said we were friends?" it was her turn to tease, and she took full advantage of it.

Naruto pulled her off his bed quickly and laid down with a laugh, "Alright well, if that is the thing you wanted to ask me, I gave you my answer... so go away!" he tossed a pillow at her, and could only grin when it hit her directly in the face.

Sakura rolled her eyes at Naruto's random moments where he will act like a kid, despite how serious he had been over the past few days. "Actually, there is one more thing." She waited until she knew he had his attention before saying, "When were you going to tell me you were sleeping with Ino!" she accused, pointing a finger for dramatic effect.

Naruto gave a comical look that was a rather good impersonation of a fish. It took him a couple moments but he quickly said quietly, "I felt that it should be a personal matter between the two of us..."

Sakura's eyes promptly widened, "Wait what? You did sleep with Ino!" she practically yelled the last part, at which Naruto threw the remaining pillow at her, this time she caught it.

Naruto glared at her for tricking him, and that she was being loud. "Tone yourself the fuck down! The only thing left for me to throw at you is a clock and a lamp." he whispered harshly. "Why the hell are you so interested anyways?"

Sakura rolled her eyes, she felt it was obvious, "Ino is my best friend! Of course I'm interested. Not to mention how she pretends to chase Sasuke-kun? Doesn't that hurt you when she does that?"

Naruto scowled at the last comment, "Sakura drop it." he told her in an icy tone.

"What? No, come on Naruto tell me about it!" she continued to pester him about it, until he snapped and quietly said.

"Sakura, as your current commanding officer, shut up, and don't talk to me about this today, actually better yet ask Ino why she was even talking to you about this." Naruto covered his face with his hands in frustration. The entire situation made him seem desperate, a guy going for a girl who was publicly going for a different guy.

"Naruto... Ino didn't sa-" She was promptly cut off by Naruto in a commanding voice saying,

"That was an order Sakura, go find Ino and talk to her about it." Sakura was about to promptly comply, Kakashi had notified everyone of Naruto's current position for the remainder of the mission.

There were some foot steps coming into the dark room, "Talk to me about what?" The moonlight dimly showed Ino's figure, who was followed by Haku. Neither looked like they were that happy being in eithers presence.

'Good.' Naruto closed his eyes in annoyance, "Ino, Sakura, get out."

Ino's eyes widened when she heard Naruto say that the moment she walked in. "What why!" she nearly yelled, this was supposed to be the first time she was going to talk to Naruto privately since they had been here.

Haku brushed past Ino with a small smirk in the dark and whispered quickly and icily in her ear, "_Because he wants to be alone with me._"

Ino grit her teeth and move her foot outward, which Haku would of stumbled over, If Naruto hadn't walked over and balanced her. "I just don't want to talk to either of you two right now alright? Why don't you both go find Sasuke or something?" Naruto finished with a frown before rather roughly ushering them out of the room before sliding the door closed and hooking a little locking latch on it down.

Haku could see perfectly in this darkness, one of the reasons she held back a giggle when Naruto promptly bumped into a small desk at the end of the bed. He walked over and crashed down on his bed face first, "What do you want Haku?" he finished with a sigh.

She unlike Sakura didn't bother to ask, "So what compelled you to sleep with the Yamanaka?" she stated bluntly. Naruto rolled his eyes, he just kicked two of the girls out of the room because he didn't want to talk about this.

"Why are you of all people interested in this Haku?" he said giving a long breath out. He was hoping just to relax. That was of course until he felt a weight suddenly appear right next to him, "Because I gave myself to you Naruto-sama." she leaned down and whispered in his ear, "You can ask for _Anything from me..._"

Naruto shivered when he heard that.

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"What did you do Sakura? Why did I have to get kicked out of the room?" Ino continued to rant, pacing back and forth of the dock.

"Well when did you plan to tell me?" Sakura asked crossing her arms over her chest glaring at her best friend.

"Tell you what Sakura?" Ino said rolling her eyes, here she was again cast off at the side while that skank of a shinobi was doing god knows what to Naruto. Hell she said she was "Experienced" well, how do you get "Experienced" at something like that? She clenched her first at the thought, and fumbled with the tie holding he hair in a pony tail. She continued to repeatedly put it up and put it down claiming it was messed up.

"That you were fucking Naruto! What the hell do you think I was asking you about?" Sakura nearly yelled it, it was a miracle that the house hadn't heard it. Ino looked like a deer caught in the way of a stray kunai.

"W-what? Sakura what are you talking about? I didn't sleep with Naruto." Ino said trying to brush it off with a laugh.

"That isn't what he said. He actually got rather mad about it, especially when I asked him how it felt when you go for Sasuke right in front of him. That is why were are out here talking, and not inside talking with them." Sakura ran a hand through her hair. She was annoyed her friend kept this fromt her, then practically lied straight to her face. Then she continued to pursue Sasuke like nothing was wrong with that?

Ino grimaced, 'If... if they're talking.' she thought sourly to herself.

"How could you be doing that, to all people Naruto?" Sakura questioned her. Ino pleaded the fifth.

Sighing in frustration at her friend, "You know what? I don't know who you are going after but..." she thought back to what Naruto said earlier. '_It didn't have to do anything about your looks Sakura. It had everything to do with how you treated me. No offense but you were cute but always were a total bitch to me. I'm not the type of person that would just go for people at face value._'

"Go after Sasuke if you want to, I'm not going to go after him anymore. You can have him." Sakura then quickly walked inside, not giving Ino time to think up a response.

Ino went over to the edge of the dock and for the first time in a long time, cried. She never felt the need to cry before. She was always the most popular girl, always had a bunch of friends. Everyone liked her, and if they didn't they at least knew of her. Confident she could get any boy to like her was the main reason she pursued Sasuke all this time. She had never lost anything over it except her friendship with Sakura. However now, she felt like she lost something more important then that...

Naruto.

The ironic thing about the situation she felt was, she didn't want to stop pursuing Sasuke the other day because it was the basis of her and her best friends friendship. So she didn't and another girl was able to move in on Naruto. Now here she is, her friend telling her she was going to stop pursuing Sasuke.

Maybe if she stoped pursuing Sasuke when they were practicing tree climbing, it would be her in the room with Naruto instead of Haku.

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The next morning Naruto woke to the sight of a half naked Haku putting on clothes right next to his bedside. "You know that we are supposed to cuddle for about an hour, and possibly do it again later right?"

Haku gave a small smile and leaned over kissing Naruto on lips quickly, "I have to go get something, I will be back around noon alright Naruto-kun?"

Naruto looked over to the clock by the bedside reading 10:30. "Thats fine..." he said slowly in between a yawn.

Haku grabbed her hunter nin mask and said, I'll be back before you know it. She made the seal to shunshin out of the house before Naruto held up a hand, "Wait!"

Haku paused and looked at him as he continued, "Where did Sasuke sleep?"

Haku smiled lightly, 'Okay nothing serious.' "He shared a room with Sakura and Ino last night since it is the only guest room with three twin beds.

Naruto nodded with a sigh, "Alright hurry back."

Haku put on her mask, which made her appearance far more intimidating, "_Why of course Naruto-sama._"

Once she vanished the voice in his head called out to him, "_I like her more then the blonde one, she even knew what she was doing Naruto-kun."_

Naruto scowled, the fox was the last person he wanted to talk to about his sexual activities, _"Jealous?"_ he asked her in a low tone.

_"Not in the least, I could have my time with you whenever I wanted."_

_"So why haven't you?"_

_"Simple Naruto-kun, you haven't earned it yet."_

Naruto grit his teeth at that thought.

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Alright there is the chapter (admittedly, I haven't been able to get it to a Beta, and you know who you are. I am bad with Email bro, so sorry X_x bit impatient)

Not much action, people are getting stressed lol, but it is needed.

Sakura: I am merely building up her character, I don't plan for her and Naruto to have a relationship bigger than close friends.

Ino: You get to see her distress with the situation between herself, Naruto and Haku this chapter.(Not like you hadn't before.)

Haku and Naruto: I can already hear the annoyance with some reviewers before even posting this. I know there will be a "Why didn't you add the lemon!" I also wanted to show Haku being more forward and blunt when it comes to more intimate situations rather than Ino who would dance around the subject.

I have been contemplating this a lot, and when I got around to the point. I felt that I could write a lemon, however I don't know if I want to before timeskip. I could offer to write lemons for the story on another site, but here is my problem. Call it selfish if you want, I really want one of my stories to be one of those famous stories that breaks the 1k review mark. I feel that if I say "Alright well I will release the chapter here, and a chapter with the lemon somewhere else." people would read it somewhere else and I wouldn't get reviews here for the story. Thus not completing one of my goals for writing fanfiction.

The thing honestly holding me back is that despite you can find lemons everywhere in fanfiction, you "Technically" aren't supposed to put them in. Thus I'm hesitent about putting one in. **If anyone can give me a viable way to still write the lemons, that people would still read this chapter and review then fine I will do it.**(if I find that people want to read them that is.) until then no lemon, sorry to the people that wanted one.

**Anyways read and review.**

**Also I will propose you a question, and I need a vote.**

Question: Where do you think Haku is going?

Vote: I wont tell you what this is for, and I may not even use this idea. It is just an option that I may use later in the story. Or soon.

Girls:

Kurenai

Anko

Hinata

Tenten

Shizune

Ayame

Tayuya

(Honestly any girl you can think of. The character you vote for will become a bigger character in the story.)

I can't say more as to not spoil the story. However the more the story goes along, the more obvious what this vote was for will become apparent.


	10. Come Together! Right now! Over Me!

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

The winner of teh Supah Awesome Harem is!!! EVERY LISTED GIRL!

no jk, girls listed below. Still wont tell anyone what this was for, only one person knows(because he asked-.-')

xxx

**Three days ago**

"I believe you all know why I have called you here today." echoed a hazy illusion in a cavern full of people or hazy illusions.

They all stayed silent as they listened to their leader speak.

"We will start the scouting phase of our plan now. Sasori you will be looking for any information on their locations through the use of your spy network. Zetsu and my partner will be looking for the locations of the jinchuriki. Everyone else shall be laying low until then, you are not to be seen."

"What about Orochimaru?" came the voice of the tallest man in the room.

The leader turned to him for a moment while saying, "He isn't a problem. If he gets out of hand I will deal with him, personally."

A man with spiky hair swung a cloth covered sword down in front of him and he balanced himself on that while he lazily looked into the ring saying, "Well what about his super soldier experiments? If he succeeds in those, he will instantly turn into far more trouble than he was worth. We should get rid of him right now."

The spiky haired hologram everyone answered relaxed his shoulders, "Sasori has contacts with Orochimaru, we will know how far along the man gets in his experiments. If he is getting close to completion, I will get rid of him. However for now he is still of use to us. He attracts the attention of the ninja villages that he interacts with, which appears to be Suna and Konoha at the moment."

A monotone voice rasped out of the shortest member of the Akatsuki in his hunch backed form, "Don't forget Mist and Wave..."

The startled some people in the room, others just raised an eyebrow. Did the fact that Orochimaru was expanding his so called path of destruction to Mist and Wave mean he is stronger than expected?

The leader put a hand over his lips, "Continue." he said through his hands, which actually sounded rather loud being right next to the ring.

"Well from what we know is obvious, he is the current leader of the Sound and he plans to invade Konoha with the help of Suna. However what I know is that he is still avidly working on his project. He has been able to make various spin offs with the project such as human transformation and his curse seal. It recently appears that he needed a baseline for his genetic experiments, to make clones of a person to continue his research. He doesn't know if after the experiments if their chakra will still even be usable, so he took a body that was already skilled with weapons for the baseline."

"Do you know who the baseline is?" questioned the leader as he glared over the shinobi in the room with ringed eyes.

"From what I have heard, it is Warren Peace." The name got a reaction out of the sword wielding shinobi in the room as he shifted uncomfortably in his place.

"So that is why you said Wave and Mist then... Peace still wants to change the mist, but he needs money to do that. So here we have a skilled swordsmen working for a crime lord, and a traitor in order to raise funds..."

The hologram of a wooden puppet coughed, "What if their plans are more closely tied than you think Leader-sama..."

The man covered in piercings let his usual emotionless mask slip and frowned. "Then we have Orochimaru trying to destroy Konoha and making the proper super soldier on our hands. Yet at the same time we have Peace who likely got paid a reasonably large amount by Orochimaru in order to use him as the baseline. Warren then vanishes off to wave and works for a crime lord. However, what if it is to just kill the crime lord and take the sum of money personally. That man paid homage far more to his last name then his first in many cases. So Sasori, and you assuming that Peace and Orochimaru have met a mutual agreement? Overthrow Konoha, then overthrow the Mist?"

"It's possible, especially if Orochimaru is able to get his project to work, then he has an army of soldiers at his disposal that are physically and mentally more advanced than any average shinobi." Sasori said slowly.

"Alright... Konan, Zetsu please move out. I want the jinchuriki found, they are not to be harmed under any circumstances. Protect them if you must. Our next meeting will be in one month's time."

Holograms started disappearing left and right, the leader always being the last to go.

Kisame stood across from the piercing covered man and said, "I want to be in charge of finding Peace."

The leader leaned forward staring at Kisame, "That is not of our concern Kisame. Do not interfere. Is that understood?"

Kisame stayed silent for a moment, before turning off his hologram without responding.

'No it is not clear...'

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Haku frowned, bandits were ransacking Zabuza's hideout. She knew there would be no way for them to get to anything valuable, however there were things in the hide out that were of personal value to her. She quickly went around the side of the house and turned on the pump that would pump water into the house. They usually turned it off because it took power to run and they often times had a house charged on a stolen battery with little energy left.

Turning on the generator and pump she climbed up to the window inside the bathroom. She waiting calmly sticking herself to the wall while she waited for several bandits searching the bathroom to leave. Once she heard the click of the closing door she slipped inside and did a small katon jutsu to a sprinkler at the ceiling that was used to put out fires.

She found it rather ironic, both her and Zabuza only knew a tiny katon jutsu to start fires, and most of the things they ate were cold. They would likely be the two least likely people to start a fire anywhere.

The sprinklers began to spit water, and she went on to gather her things. With the floor completely wet, it only meant that soon after it would be completely iced over and her playing field. Bandits stood no chance.

She stepped out of the bathroom, only to catch sight of three bandits looking up at the ceiling confused and trying to cover their eyes from the water when they took stabs at the sprinkler system. Haku frowned, she hated the idea of killing, but even if she paralyzed these people they would eventually drown from the house filling with water. She flung several senbon their direction, all hitting the unaware targets and making them fall helplessly to the ground.

Haku tried not to think about the murder she had just undoubtedly committed as she stepped over the fallen bodies. She walked over to a dresser in the corner of the room and roughly pushed it over. She didn't need the clothes, she needed the bottom of the dresser.

She stripped herself of her mask as she found what she wanted. At the bottom of the dresser resided several stacks of money held in there by tacked ninja wire. She quickly took the bills off of the dresser and stored them within her clothes. Gatoh had paid Zabuza half up front. Needless to say she was holding a healthy sum on money on her person at the moment. Enough for the average civilian to start a new life and live quiet well for at least a few years.

Just as she was about to leave she heard the tap of a cane behind her. She only knew one man that used a cane, she jumped backwards to the window. There was no need for her to kill more men if she didn't have to.

She paled considerably when she saw who it was 'If I can kill them...' it was Gatoh with an umbrella over his head flanked by Warren Peace.

"Well well, what do we have here?" asked Gatoh as he gave a laugh that seemed to make his entire body jiggle. "I thought the girl was dead too, I guess I was wrong. Peace bag her, I plan to teach her why she shouldn't cross Gatoh." he said with a grin coming across his face. How could he not grin, she was a good looking girl. At least that way the money he had paid that swordsmen wouldn't go completely to waste. He could give her to the bandits to be a whore, an expensive whore, but a whore none the less.

"Anyways I will be waiting for you outside, my shoes are getting soaked." Gatoh quickly left, not bothering to step over his fallen soldiers and merely walked over them.

Peace and Haku stared off at eachother from across the room. Haku was the first to act and launched several senbon at the man. However the impact instantly made her discouraged.

Peace had unsheathed his sword just enough for the eye to be visible. The senbon had impacted on the door to the left of him.

Peace closed his eyes and bit his tongue before sighing, "Get out of here, and don't come back."

Haku looked startled on that note, but before she could ask questions Peace had walked out of the room. Not one to look a gift kunai for scratches, she quickly left the house via window and disappeared into the forest.

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Gatoh sat smoking his pipe with a large grin on his face, to say he was going to rather pleased tonight was an understatement. He had his way with many of the women in wave, but none of them were fresh meat. He had never been with a ninja before, perhaps she would be better and stronger then the pathetic women in wave. The women in wave would always start to cry, it wasn't as fun. Some of them would get angry, which would make things interesting. However none of them had ever been without emotion, like shinobi are supposed to be. The girl would be the most interesting toy he would of gotten to play with.

Imagine his displeasure when he saw Peace come out of the house and say, "I don't hurt family."

The man continued to walk back to Gatoh's complex, or into Wave. Whatever the man did in his free time. Was Orochimaru really that wise in requesting this man to be sent? He barely spoke, he was rarely around, he didn't follow orders! He would be confronting him later, that was for sure. For now, he needed to get back to his own head quarters, and get himself a women. He needed to take his mind off the current situation.

So that was why when one of his guards asked him what age? He told them,

"Young."

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Naruto was woken abruptly by Ino when she yanked the covers off of his naked form. Naruto jumped up, and grabbed the covers "What the fuck is your problem Ino!"

Ino stared at him wide eyed still shocked that he was naked, "W-wait, you had sex with her!" she practically yelled. Naruto pulled on shorts discarded at the bottom of the bed under the covers. He covered Ino's mouth with his hand, at which point she roughly pushed him off. "Don't touch me, I don't know where your hands hand been!" she nearly yelled hurt by the situation. She knew what was likely happening, still it hurting knowing that it was true.

Naruto growled, "What the hell is your problem, yes I had sex with her Ino!"

Ino looked like someone told her that her father had disowned her. "W-why?" she stuttered out. She kept telling herself she wouldn't cry, but she felt like this competition with Haku that she had, she already lost.

Naruto sighed and ran a hand through his hair, "Because Ino, I got tired of the fact that you were nearly humping Sasuke in front of me every time we were publicly together. It's like everything I tried to tell you before I left meant nothing to you? I'm not going to just be there for you and for sex in private Ino! Thats pathetic. Why would I want to be with you when there is a girl that is blatantly treating me better both in public and in private!"

Ino seemed to shrink into herself as Naruto's words hit her. "I didn't know what to do Naruto, I-"

"No you knew, you could of just been with me and all of this!" he motioned to the room and the bed, "Wouldn't be happening."

Ino looked annoyed, "Don't try to pin this all on me!"

Naruto laughed, "Why not? You are the one barging in my room ripping my blankets off. You are the one that was hung up on another boy even though you slept with me. Don't give me crap like you love me and shit, please don't. You have had a good long while to figure things out and what you want to do. You are just coming to me now because Haku is in the picture. You wouldn't be giving me second glance if Haku wasn't around."

Ino stayed silent, that was likely true. She would then still know that he was hers and wouldn't have to worry about him being stolen or with other women.

Naruto sighed as he began hopping on one foot to put on his pants, "So what do you want Ino? Me to stop sleeping with Haku? Thats not going to happen."

That hurt, but Ino held back her tears and continued on, "No Naruto, I want you. I want you to be there for me."

Naruto fumbled with putting his shirt on quickly, "I am there for you Ino..." he paused as he put his head through the shirt, "Just not in the way that you want."

In truth Naruto cared about her a lot, but he didn't want to risk the moments he had with Haku over the possible moments he may have with Ino.

Ino looked down at her bunny slippers, wasn't the usual attire for a ninja but it distracted her enough to continue talking without having the thought of losing Naruto on her mind. "So even if I beg you, you wont be with me? I promise I wont go for Sasuke anymore or anything like that... just please."

Naruto's mask of anger and frustration began to crumble as he was the most confident girl he had ever known-

_Besides me..._

Naruto blocked out the fox as he continued, The most confident girl he had ever known crumble emotionally right before his eyes. He had lived his entire love without any intimate love whether it be as lovers or just family. Now here he is stuck between two girls, and one was crumbling down right in front of him. There was nothing he could justly do without hurting one of the girls and it sucked.

Naruto looked away and said quietly, "Look I think you should go... I need to clean up. I will talk to you about this later."

Ino looked up at Naruto with tears in her eyes and wiped a single tear away. She tried to stay strong when she looked at Naruto and nodded with a weak smile on her face before quickly turning around and getting out of the room as quick as possible.

Naruto sighed, he cared for Ino a lot. He couldn't just push his first time with a girl out of his mind, it was just tough since the girl was still around and was hurting because of him.

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A blue haired woman sighed as she looked on at Naruto through the window of Tazuna's house. She activated the technology behind the ring on her finger and said into it, "This is White, I have located the Kyuubi Jinchuriki."

She formed a paper crane and watched as it fly over to the window of the room that Naruto resided in.

A voice called back through the ring and said quietly, "Good work Konan, stay out of sight and continue tracking him the remainder of his days in Wave. Try your best not to be seen, but make sure the boy doesn't die."

Konan cut off the ring's communication and opted to discard her cloak in the forest. While most shinobi found that staying out of sight was for a shinobi to hide in the shadows and wait for the optimum time to strike. She opted for a different method.

She turned herself into hundreds of sheets of paper and reformed herself on the outside of town, forming her new attire from her sheets of paper she took the first step in her way of not being seen.

_Hiding in plain sight._

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Short chapter(shortest actually.) I also feel it is one of my worst chapters. I felt that the Haku/Warren scene could of been done better, same goes for Konan at the end. Gatoh's thoughts I felt were average at best. I honestly think the only thing I did remotely right was Ino and Naruto's bit, even that I felt was shaky.

Sorry for the bad chapter everyone.(In my opinion at least).

Alright so the votes are in, and I have taken everyone input into consideration. I just give a quick note on all of the girls. Leave a review if you want the full plan/spoilers.

Anko: I would of used her for what I had planned, but for what I have planned I wanted there to be a big contrast in personalities of the characters. Anko is pretty crazy in general which didn't really make her a fun character for what I had planned. However I may give her a bigger part in the story since people seem to love her. Any ideas for her are welcome.

Tayuya: She is already planned to be in the story(originally a bigger part than canon, but as of recent with the people who really liked her, I think she may become a very big character come timeskip.)

Kurenai: She is ridiculously hard for me to try and figure out how to write. She may have been a good character to use, but She to me is too tied down with responsibilities for it to properly work.

Ayame: She fell into the top 2 easiest characters to use, and most likely.

Konan: To me appears to have won this vote, even though only 1 person voted for her, she worked best.

Tenten: She can work the same way as Ayame, the only thing is Ayame has Canon support while Tenten has fancanon support.

Hinata: She would of been really fun to use, I usually dislike the girl. However I admit she would have been probably the most entertaining to use.

Temari: She had potential to be interesting, the problem is she lives in Suna which is no fun for what I had planned.

Hanabi(My personal suggestion): Similar to Hinata, but probably much more entertaining and interesting.

x

**Last notes that I will add in now.**

**1:Kyuubi is going to seem almost godlike come soon in the story. No she wont be super charging Naruto. However she will be LOLstrong.**

**I will explain why Kyuubi seems so strong in detail, but I am giving you all a heads up.**

**2: Madara vs Nagato power level will come under heavy scrutiny. **

Those are the two heads up I am going to give everyone right now.

Now my question/help of the week:

I need female and male names for the story come soon. (I actually need 3 more)

In addition, if you build a chunin exam table similar to they did in the canon series. They took numbers from a hat.

if you can do the Canon Teams, Sound Team, Sand team and Kabuto's team for the preliminaries, your layout may be what I use for the story.

(I hope I made that understandable lol...)

**Read and Review, sorry for the short chapter.**

Don't expect as quick of updates the next few days

Edit: Oops I posted the unproofread version of the chapter O.O! and deleted the proof read version. I can't correct it at the moment, so if you find mistakes I will be fixing them later sorry about this.


	11. Don't you ever forget again

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

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Naruto sighed as he put his clothes down by the side of the bed in a chair neatly folded. Sasuke had already gone to sleep and rolled over facing away from Naruto. The Uchiha had promptly moved back into his room once Ino had started talking to Sakura before they slept.

Haku had been off lately. She wasn't acting like she normally did, she hadn't been helping him the past few days either. She said that she had something on her mind, but wouldn't tell him what it was. Part of him wanted to demand that she tell him, but that would then truly be treating her like a slave and he wouldn't want that. Still... it was frustrating.

Not to mention after training with his team he would go into the town each day, hoping to run into interesting people like he had with Peace. Boy had he met someone interesting.

It was this blue haired woman, Konan, she wore make up and had her lip pierced. He hadn't met anyone like her before, the only women like that he had seen were in the magazines about music in Rock Country. She was pretty, and Naruto hated admitting it, because of how much older she was then him. However she would often turn him on by just the sight of her. He however crushed the feeling once they began talking on an everyday basis.

It turned out that the woman was a former shinobi. She was really lucky when it came to cards, it was actually pretty unfair. She seemingly won nearly every hand of cards that they had played. He at first thought she was a con when she wanted to play for money. Like he would ever let her... 'Delicate beautiful smooth hands touch my frog pouch...'

Naruto grit his teeth and mentally slapped himself, pretty or not he couldn't be getting side tracked on the job. He was in charge of the mission, him getting a hard on from a former shinobi in the land of waves was not his top priority at the moment.

The woman said when she was a shinobi life was much harder for her than what it is for shinobi in Konoha. He wanted to ask how she knew what life was like in Konoha. It almost made him mad, because he felt like she was taking a stab at him. Like he didn't go through hardship when he was becoming a shinobi. He sure as hell did!

Her smile when she talked to him about it though told him that wasn't the case. She said she grew up in grass country with a few friends. Being so close to countries in war and in civil war really shook up their often passing through, or kidnapping women and children and forcing them to work for their respective nations whether it be for repairs or building structures. She had learned from a Konoha shinobi that had refused to reveal his name to them, and taught them what it meant to be a shinobi.

It was actually a bit funny that he was hearing about the will of fire for the first time from someone who was never part of Konoha. She actually seemed to know a lot about shinobi life the more he talked to her. She even taught him a few things, after he bugged her into doing so. Hey, how could you blame him? If you want to become something in the ninja world, no doesn't mean "no" it means "try again."

It was a bit odd her reaction to it however...

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"Oh come on Konan! You used to be a ninja, you must be able to teach me something!" Naruto had been bugging her ever since the left the tavern that they had continually met at. Konan often seemed glad to have him around, and at the same time annoyed. He didn't really understand the woman, she just told him all the time that he was very lucky.

He had been pestering her the past several days for any jutsu she could teach him, however little did he know that Konan very well couldn't teach him much, and if she did teach him anything useful it would be borderline treason. The only thing that would save her would be her relationship with Nagato , if she were anyone else she would likely be killed. Although, she knew she had to set an example for the members of the organization, so she couldn't teach the boy anything.

She was originally going to pretend to teach the boy paper manipulation, but that was nothing but bad news. If the boy said anything about it, the concept of her unique ability would be out in the open. Even if the boy couldn't figure out the ability. She wouldn't put it past the Professor of Jutsu that currently resided in the Hokage office to figure it out.

So, she opted to teach the boy something she knew he couldn't learn. _Ukojizai no Jutsu_, Nagato had spent years trying to figure out how to control the rain in Amegakure. Fulfilling Yahiko's dream by learning how to stop the rain.

That was when trouble started. The more she helped the boy, the more she seemed to find her eyes narrowing whenever she looked at him. She didn't hate the jinchuriki , but as the boy began to come closer and closer to solving how to work the technique, the more she began to regret even bothering to teach him anything. She knew it was bad news telling the boy the seal sequence, she just needed something to do to pass time while the boy remained in wave.

She could remember just seeing the boy form a small cloud in the sky and then when the first drop hit her face, she wanted to leave. She was slightly proud, having taught the technique to the boy. However she knew it wasn't the right thing to do. Hell the technique shouldn't have even been possible, yet the Kyuubi jinchuriki seemingly didn't have limits. He worked around the fact that Yahiko had the unique ability to excell greatly with water jutsu. Making rainfall was no easy feat. Yet this child, this young carefree boy- Yahiko...

She would always shake her head when her thoughts strayed, no matter how similar this boy was to Yahiko, whether it be facial expressions, personalities, determination. This boy wasn't Yahiko, she didn't believe in reincarnation, Yahiko was dead and gone.

Several days had gone by, she couldn't just walk away after starting to teach the boy, hell her job was to watch the boy. Then she went on to teach him ajutsu that would be able to trace her the second she went outside in the entire village. If Nagato hadn't gotten so cold since the death of Yahiko, he likely would of laughed at her foolishness.

She had since stopped putting on make up whenever she was teaching the boy, her make up would always run whenever she stood in the rain the boy made.

Naruto was something else, pushing himself to the limits of chakra exhaustion learning the technique, only for his chakra to flare moments later with the reserves of an above average shinobi. He would wake up and then continue working on the technique, not worried of the fact that he could get a cold. Hell if she couldn't cover herself in several layers of paper, she would likely be freezing from being soaked.

The boy had continued progressing through the jutsu, he was practically done by the third day of them training together. He had the chakra sensing down. Sure he was nowhere near as good as Nagato, sensing everyone in Amegakure. However it was rather unfair to compare a child to a god. More often than not a child was doomed to fail unless the child had help.

She had to lie to the boy's face when the rain had touched her ring and the boy asked why she had so many different chakra signatures. She was impressed, but she would never openly tell the boy that. If she encouraged him, or told him he was doing good, the boy may end up excelling to fast. It was already her fault that he was excelling at all. It was in her best intrest to come clean to Nagato the moment she got back to Ame, and spring up a conversation about Yahiko. It was always a soft spot for Nagato, it was one for her as well... but she didn't kill him. Nagato did. Still, if she sprung up the conversation like that, and then eased her way into telling him how the Kyuubi jinchuriki reminded her of Yahiko. He would let her off the hook, and if he didn't she could always tell him to wait till he meets him to pass judgement.

It took awhile, but Naruto had become one of the two people in the world to create one of the greatest water jutsu's in the world. However more than that, it was a jutsu that brought a country out of poverty.

She pursed her lips when she thought about the land of waves and turned to look to Naruto. Perhaps this boy could save the land of waves from the poverty that it was in. The boy would just have to beat Peace...

_'Heh... not likely.'_

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Naruto sighed and climbed into bed, he had never felt more proud that he felt in the last few days. Here he was, laying down, controlling the rainy weather outside. He knew everyone in the rain, he could sense the drunks, the bandits, the homeless. Everyone. Sure it may not sound that great, "Feeling" everyone in a village. However to him, it was perfect. For a person that had been so out of touch with everyone in his home town, to be able to "Feel" everyone in a town was something extraordinary . He was going to try and keep the technique going all night, since the initiation of the technique was the hard part, once it was going it was a piece of cake to continue.

Naruto laid down and closed his eyes, hoping to get a peaceful sleep. Too bad he couldn't sense people not touching his rainfall, otherwise he may have been able to sense Sakura and Ino crouched outside of his bedroom door.

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"Ino, are you seriously going to go through his head when he is sleeping? Your the one who told me walking in Sasuke's house and leaving him flowers was an invasion of privacy!" Sakura whispered harshly.

Ino waved her hand dismissively, "No Sakura, that was back then when we were 10. Things have changed." she held in a small laugh when she saw the look on Sakura's face.

"Yeah... mind rape is in." Sakura whispered with a scowl on her face.

Ino grimaced in turn, "Shut up Sakura, I need to do this." she kept trying to tell herself this. The more she thought about it the more she would not want to do it.

Sakura crossed her arms across her chest, "This is wrong and you know it is! Even if you like Naruto, this isn't right Ino. If you force him to like you then what is the point? You could have done that years ago with Sasuke!"

Ino looked shocked, "I'm not doing that Forehead!" she practically growled through gritted teeth. While it was true she could do that, that wasn't the plan. She wasn't that low, it was sad that her friend thought of her in such a way. "I just want to see why he picked Haku over me!" she was distressed, the more she talked about it, the more she wanted to know. Before she could let Sakura ask another question, or question her intentions she quickly slid open the door and did her family's signature jutsu.

Ino practically dived straight into water when she went into his mindscape. His mindscape was a sewer which made her frown. Her father always told her that a person's mindscape reflects what they feel about their life. If Naruto's mindscape was a sewer...

_His life was shit, or a collection of shit._

Ino frowned, it was so dark in the sewer it was nearly impossible to find her way around. All of these large metal bars that resembled that of a cage, that was when she stopped. A cage? Perhaps he keeps his memories in a cage?

She paused, before calmly walking through the large bars. She seemed to be making progress, seeing as the farther in she walked the greater of a red glow came about. The glow, the closer she got seemed to make her hot. She shouldn't be able to feel anything physical in a mindscape, so it both interested her and scared her at the same time at what she may find.

It was of course rather interesting when she found Naruto laying down practically in mid air, floating on top of a red cloud. Then he suddenly just disappeared. Vanished into thin air, with nothing to show of it. It was strange, perhaps this was just a sign from Kami. She wasn't supposed to find out what she wanted sifting through Naruto's mind, she was supposed to talk to him herself.

However she was surprised when she felt a strong arm wrap around her waist, and another hand grab her chin. At first she was surprised and scared, until of course she felt lips tracing the skin on her upper right shoulder going up her neck. Who else would do that.

She sighed and relaxed into the person's waiting arms, "This is a bit hypocritical Naruto, saying I only want to do things with you in private and here you are doing things to me in your mind."

She only received a huff of amusement in return as little kisses were placed up her neck, and soon teeth began to nibble on her ear lobe. The touch made her shudder, but she would much rather be doing things like this in person where she could...

_Feel it?_

Her eyes widened when that thought crossed her mind, she could feel all of this. She shouldn't be able to feel anything in a mindscape. She cautiously called out with a bit of a stutter, "N-Naruto?"

There was a pause from nibbling on her ear that gave her a false sense of security, because what was said next gave her terror. A female voice gasped out a breath in her ear that was seductive and enticing, however that was the problem,

_"Not quite..."_

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Naruto frowned even more when both Haku and Ino had been keeping to themselves, it was as if he had done something to both of them it was rather annoying. He was just glad that he was able to do two things today.

Number one being, he was able to make it rain throughout the night. Number two, he was supposed to watch Tazuna while he worked on the bridge. Therefore he had time to himself. Ever since he had been in Wave he never had any "Me" time. Now don't get him wrong, he enjoyed spending time with his friends. Hell despite his fight with Sakura , he was closer to all of his teammates than he had ever been to anyone in his life. Save two of his most precious people working at a ramen stand.

Then there was Konan, she was his first real teacher in his opinion. Iruka had disliked him for the Kyuubi the early part of his teaching. By the time Iruka came around, it was just too little too late. If the neglect was for only one year it wouldn't of been that bad. However being neglected in school for over three years put him too far behind to even care to make up the basics.

Kakashi disliked him at first, sure the man came around recently and gave him some tiny advice with water walking. The man had yet to really teach him anything from the ground up yet.

Konan was his first teacher, he had to bug her to teach him of course, but she eventually did it. He didn't care that she didn't say she was proud of him, it was one of the few moments in his life that he was genuinely proud with himself on the work he had done, that was far more than he could ever ask for.

Naruto was just about to get to the subject of the swordsman he had met, when the man appeared at the only available exit of the bridge and began to slowly walk across.

Naruto grew a big grin on his face until he saw the face of the man coming across the bridge. It wasn't the face of a man who was happy to see an acquaintance, it was the face of a man ready for battle. It didn't help the fact that Peace was flanked by two other men.

One had pitch black goggle like lenses over his eyes, while the other had round glaces with an overconfident grin plastered over his face. Regardless, from what he heard from Peace, the man had fought his way to the Mizukage and nearly killed him. With or without help, the odds were not looking good.

Naruto grabbed his sword and turned to Tazuna, "Tazuna get back!" he yelled, making several clones. Two of them jumped off opposite sides of the bridge in hopes to get back to the household. Right now he needed to hold out as best as he could. That was why Naruto felt his heart hit the pit of his stomach when he turned around from calling out to Tazuna to see Peace with his blade positioned as Naruto's neck.

This fight was far more dangerous then Haku or the demon brothers, this man was beyond skilled. He just hoped to god that somewhere a guardian angel was looking out for him.

"Hello Naruto..." said Peace calmly, his face trying to be as calm as possible. However Naruto knew what it was like trying to hide his emotions behind a mask, the man was in obvious distress.

Naruto took several steps back, "You know that you don't need to do this Peace, your better than this."

Warren continued, taking slower steps towards Naruto, he didn't want to harm the boy. Just sometimes, you had to do what you had to do to get by. "I'm afraid you are wrong there Naruto, I need the money."

Naruto grit his teeth, "Your better than that! You know that too Peace!" Naruto continued to try and reason with Peace, the man didn't want to kill him but he would if he needed to. It was like staring death in the face, and never knowing when he was going to take your soul.

Naruto got two of his clones to try and get in front of him, they were both cut in half near instantly by the warriors one handed swordsmanship. It bought him just enough time to start a rainfall over the land of waves. It was probably one of the dumbest things he could do, giving a mist ninja more water to work with. However it would was the poison off of Peace's blade. Desperate times call for desperate measures.

"Hand him over Naruto, I don't want to kill you-"

"Then don't!" Naruto yelled as he cut him off before squinting his eyes shut momentarily. Both of his clones had been destroyed at relatively the same time, one on a chase through the town, and another on the river. Either way, they didn't make it back to his team.

"I can't do that Naruto, this is my job." he was keeping his voice in a monotone, his voice was beginning to hold no emotion. Yet his eyes were telling a different story. "If I can't gather the money I need, I will never be able to complete my dream."

Naruto scowled, he had dreams, but he didn't want to kill anyone to reach them. "Why can't you work like a normal person!" he yelled in frustration, this was his first real mission, and here he was going to be cut down by a missing nin, as was he client. That would be the biggest joke in history for a person who wants to be Hokage.

"Because we aren't normal people Naruto! I thought you of all people would understand what it means to be a ninja. The young girl you sat next to was a trained killer all of her life by my best friend!" His blade arm held strong from years of training, but his other hand showed his distress through it shaking.

Naruto flinched when the man yelled at him the cold hard truth, who was he to tell a trained assassin that he shouldn't kill people. That would be going against what he had been doing all of his life, what he would be doing the remainder of his life. '_If I have a life after today..._' he thought with a scowl.

Naruto looked Peace in the eye, you could tell a lot about someone sometimes just by their name. Sakura had the pink hair like a cherry blossom, while Kakashi had a single eye showing like that of a worn down scarecrow. Yet when he looked into the eyes of Warren Peace, he saw neither.

He didn't see Peace, and at the same time he didn't see war. He only saw a shadow of a former man that was trying to get his life back on track. That was why it hurt to much to try and stall this man from correcting his life.

Naruto flinched when the man whispered, "I'm sorry Naruto..."

He was tossed to the side, and the man went in for a stab at Tazuna with his blade. Naruto mustered with all of his might to spring board back into the path of Tazuna. It was an unexpected move made by many shinobi. The boy should of stumbled trying to do something like that. That was why the boy with a blade pierced through his shoulder was definitely a surprising sight.

Peace's eyes narrowed at an unnatural movement in the trees across the bridge. Whoever was watching the battle was surprised by that outcome as well. However, he couldn't focus completely. He had just likely taken away the dreams of a child. Was his ambition really worth the life of another child who wanted peace just like he did?

Peace looked away from the sight of Naruto on the end of his blade and hoisted it up and flung the boy to the boxes on the side of the bridge.

Naruto looked on with fading eyesight at the look Peace gave him, the regret in his eyes. He struggled to keep his own eyesight open due to pain, but he had to save the bridge builder. It just looked like all was lost.

_Time stopped._

"Hey Kid!" came an echoing voice of a male.

Naruto wanted to turn around or roll over, trying to find the person who owned the voice yet he couldn't.

"If it were me I wouldn't be throwing in the towel yet! Who cares if the situation looks bad! You should never give up regardless of the situation!" The man gave out a gruff laugh at the end of that and came around into Naruto's vision. He was pretty damn surprised when he saw Zabuza standing there.

He held out his hand, "My blade, while not much on the outside traps the soul of the most recent and skilled wielder on the inside of the blade to teach the next wielder all the techniques he knows. However for now, need me to lend a hand?"

Naruto grit his teeth, he had survived all of his life without the help of others till just a few days ago. 'I need to get back on track.' he shook his head quickly and stood up surprising Zabuza.

'_If only I found this kid outside of Konoha...' _Zabuza thought to himself mildly impressed with the boy. He gave some parting words of encouragement to the boy.

"Don't sweat it, I've kicked this guys ass once before! It's a piece of cake!" Zabuza said with a smirk on his face.

Naruto shook his head free and nodded his head, "Right!"

"Hey kid don't you ever forget again..."

Naruto grinned, while he didn't want help from Zabuza. The encouragement was nice. He looked down at the blade resting by his feet, picking it up he said quietly.

"I am the proof you once existed."

Time came back to Normal, and it merely appeared to be a burst of chakra. However to Peace and the onlookers, it appeared Naruto was covered in a coat of red fire. Naruto leaped forward at peace, large sword dragging across the ground, cutting straight through the ground like a hot knife through butter as it came up to swing at Peace from below.

The large gash it made in the bridge would of made Tazuna cry under different circumstances.

Peace through years of expert swordsmanship easily deflected the blade, but was incredibly surprised when the blow had sent him flying into the air, with the boy jumping off of nearby crates to catch up with him as he too jumped into the air.

He didn't know whether to be happy that the boy was alive, or scared... that the boy was alive. What he did know however, was that their battle had just begun when the wound he inflicted on Naruto's shoulder closed up right before his eyes.

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Alright, I'm tired, I hope I don't drabble too much. Its 3am and my girlfriend just went out to NY for a couple weeks lol...

Anyways this chapter was simple to write, hopefully it wasn't bad. Sorry for the late update(in my opinion) I had school work. It happens.

Anyways I hope you get the reference to Rock country lol :O and I think I can already feel annoyance with people in Naruto learning how to control rain. Yes? No?

**Let me put this in bold: The vote for the girl was not for her to become part of a harem, it was something else entirely. You will see in the coming chapter is I can make it work or not.**

No Naruto's blade isn't some form of Bleach crossover garbage. Lets not get started with the reviews that will sound like "Whats Naruto's bankai going to be?"

please don't...

Zabuza's blade was interesting in the sense that it had no unique ability that all the other swordsman had with their blades. Sofar(Raiga:acted like lightning rods, Kisame:Shreds, absorbs chakra, Chojiro:Forms into a hammer? Then Peace: OC, already explained. Manipulates depth perception.

I had Zabuza's not have any physical characteristics, I actually gave his blade the ability to store souls of previous wielders for personal training and guidance, and as you saw Zabuza could have offered Naruto a hand. Was based off the line in the newly released Advent Children Complete where Zack offers Cloud a hand against Sephiroth in the final battle.

Expect a lot of fighting in the next couple of chapters, and hopefully a surprising twist.

Tell me what you thought of this chapter, and I have a question for everyone.

**possible spoiler**

On a scale of 1-10 how much do you like Karin(Sasuke's partner) in the Naruto series?

The reason I am asking is I can actually tell you for once. I am actually considering making her a much bigger character come Naruto's timeskip(in which the third year will actually be filled in by me personally.) She will actually become one of Naruto's most trusted partners. Naruto will also be developing his own team(most likely)**. **So I want everyone's opinion.

Anyways thank you everyone for the names. Now if you could vote for any three shinobi to be apart of this team who would they be? (Preferably sound shinobi.)


	12. How Could You Be So Heartless?

Warren parried the blow that came at him in mid air and pushed Naruto back down to the ground. It was an impressive blow from a kid who obviously had no formal training with a sword. He was swinging it around like a club, his first mistake was hitting him into the air. While he couldn't dodge up there, it gave him more room to parry the boy's movements.

He landed gracefully after a flip, cloak flapping lightly behind him in the wind, boots now wet due to jumping in the puddles that had formed on the bridge. The boy, he was a different story. Naruto landed in something akin to an ungraceful heap of the ground, it was more like a bastardized crouch. However he couldn't be overly critical about the boy, he was putting his heart out in this battle. He could finish the boy off in a second if he needed to, but he didn't have it in him. Killing another person who is just trying to preserve their dreams? Killing a child at that?

Peace ran his free hand through his hair as Naruto had cleaved downward a few feet from his position. His genjutsu had taken effect. The boy's blade was mildly surprising, whenever he his the ground with it a fork of flames would fly several feet across the ground. It gave the boy a longer reach then expected, the only problem was that the flames only went forward. No tricky ways to curve them, that he had at least seen so far.

As the fight continued to press on, the boy opting to use heavy cleaving attacks that left him wide open while Warren was stuck between wanting to finish the battle, and yet not killing the kid. It was surprising that the more they fought, the faster the boy seemed to get. No signs of even getting tired. It was impressive, but he would need a lot more then impressive to even lay a finger on him.

He was being foolish, the more they fought the more he wanted to continue pushing the blond. It made him scowl as he watched the boy. He saw the raw determination that the boy had in his eyes right now before, nearly every time he fought Zabuza. When his mist wasn't covering the nearby area, Peace dominated the assassin. Yet the assassin always never gave up until he couldn't walk due to broken bones. The man, known as a demon would fight until he needed a full body cast in the hospital.

The boy charged forward at him with a downward slash, he had lost count of how many times the boy tried to do that, but he had to get across the point that it wasn't working. Naruto slashed downwards, and Peace held his blade downward to the side, making the metals grind against each other before Naruto's blade slammed into the ground causing a small cone of fire to burst out forward on impact.

Peace with a solid fist punched forward with his free hand causing Naruto to fly back and skid several feet. He couldn't help but narrow his eyes once again at the sight of a movement in the trees, someone was waiting for the right moment to enter the battle. Yet the boy was getting his ass handed to him, now was as good a time as any.

Peace sighed if the person wouldn't come out, then he would force the person out.

Naruto ran at him like a raged animal, and yet he pushed him away like trash. Naruto tried to jump at him and slash across his mid section from right to left. It was to no avail, years of training and developing a strong sword arm held through. The blades slammed against each other, and Peace caught Naruto by the throat and tossed him over his shoulder. He waited a moment, looking for any forces wishing to join the battle before continuing.

Naruto struggled to get up, he felt something _tear_ on the impact with the ground. He however was given no time to recover by Peace, the man's attitude had done a complete one-eighty. Fire the man was toying with him, now he once again looked like he was staring death in the face.

Peace ran forward as Naruto was getting up and lifted him with a hand off the ground. He had no way to dodge now.

Naruto tried his best to position the sword in front of his body to block any oncoming attacks, but each second he was fearing for his life.

Peace came forward with a flurry on cuts. From right to left and right again all the while Naruto stayed hovering a measly couple feet from the ground. Not enough to make it so peace had no footing, but just enough to make sure that their height difference was one of Naruto's severe disadvantages.

Once Naruto landed on the ground the smirk on Peace's face was something akin to 'I'm not done yet.'

He wasn't, he came forward with several piercing stabs that made Naruto have wide eyes as he barely dodge the one coming at the right side of his head, only to have the one coming at the left to graze his cheek.

Naruto ducked under another piercing slash, thinking he found that to be a much better method than trying to tilt his head to the side. The butt of Peace's sword to the back of his head clearly said "Fuck your theory" as it nearly made him fall over if it wasn't for the vicious knee the followed after it that sent him flying into the crates, breaking them and causing a cloud of dust to shoot up similar to a large weight being dropped in a dusty or sandy area.

Peace held his blade steadily at his side, the sharp blade having wind pass over it causing it to sing. Now he just needed this to look convincing. He walked forward, blade ready and prepared to stab downward into the heap near the boxes.

Naruto was struggling to get up and fight once again, he hadn't received an ass kicking like this since his first spar with Sasuke, or when he was roughed up a little by some drunk villagers. Even then this was on a whole different level. For example, he had never been stabbed before.

He scowled at that thought, 'First time for everything...'

He winced as once again his shoulder was pierced in a rather rough way by Peace's blade. His control over the rain nearly faltered when that happened. He was hoisted up into the again once again, nearly five feet off the ground. That easily translated into five feet from being comfortable. Every twitch he made he slipped farther down the blade, which only made it more painful when he was taking it out, or better yet was flung off of it.

Peace stared at Naruto as the red coat of chakra seemed to condense more and more in his arm. It appeared the boy was about to release a large burst of chakra, but he had no clue why. That was until he saw the boy's eyes flicker and it suddenly all made sense.

The coat of chakra, wanting to be recognized, undying determination. Qualities that the Yondaime Mizukage Yagura had. The thought of Yagura left a bad taste in his mouth, but he couldn't let his thoughts stray.

What he did know however was if he was hit with whatever sort of blast the boy may be preparing to perform with his hand, he would likely be out of commission. If not dead, the chakra levels gathering there screamed "One hit K.O."

Peace flung Naruto upwards into the sky, if the boy fell from those heights, jinchuriki or not something would be broken.

Just as he anticipated, a blue haired female jumped out of the trees and swooped in catching the falling blonde. However, what he didn't anticipate was the large pillar of red chakra.

While he was playing the woman, _a woman was playing him._

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"Everyone come with me!" Kakashi yelled in surprise when he felt the chakra spike. Screw feeling it in fact, you could see it. It was a large red pillar that seemed to come down from the sky. It lit up wave like a christmas tree from hell for a moment.

All of his students in addition to Asuma's had been practicing water walking. While they had mastered the technique, it still helps increase your chakra reserves. Sakura had taken to stop chasing after Sasuke as of late, and she had been improving in leaps and bounds which was surprising.

The more he looked at her, the easier it became for him to see his former teammate, Rin in her. Her chakra control was perfect, nearly that akin to a medic ninja, and the increase of her reserves didn't seem to be effecting it in any way.

Sasuke had learned water walking last out of the entire group, yet had improved the most. While Naruto was down at the bridge watching Tazuna all the time, Sasuke was training. If they weren't on an equal level before, he couldn't be surprised if Sasuke had surpassed the blond.

Kakashi paused at that thought, Naruto had put this team on the right track, all the while having dominance over the members of the house. Perhaps he shouldn't jump the gun when it comes to guaging Naruto's strength.

Haku had suddenly just stopped talking to Naruto for some reason. It was almost strange, it made him even more wary of her then he already was. He didn't know if they had some sort of fall out or if something was on her mind. Just whatever it was, it didn't seem like it was good.

He, despite his weakened state darted across the water faster than anyone in the group. He was a jounin, give him some credit. He got to the house, and Asuma was already outside having felt the chakra spike. He had a look of worry, mixed with one trying to figure out what the chakra spike could have been.

Kakashi could understand that, however he was on the front lines of the battle and ran down the massive beast with a chidori only to nearly get his arm stuck in the beast as in healed as quickly as he could damage it. He would never forget the chakra, or the feeling of being swatted away like an annoying fly from the beast.

Kakashi sighed, "Asuma do you want to have your team watch the house? We really need to go right now however." Off to the right Haku spent no time in running right past the group and down to the chakra spike.

Asuma spit out a chewed on cigarette and nodded, "Yeah get out of here..."

Kakashi and his team ran off down the road as fast as their legs could carry them, they had no idea what type of danger Naruto could be in. However if that was any way for him to contact them, it sure as hell worked.

Shikamaru and Chouji fell to their Sensei's sides while Ino was torn. She wanted to go make sure that Naruto was okay, and yet she couldn't. That was until her sensei had saw her distress.

"Go ahead Ino, we have it covered. Go catch up to them." he said as he was pulling out a fresh cigarette and lighting it. Ino took off in an instant, she didn't want her sensei to double think his choice to let her go.

The pineapple headed teenager frowned, "You sure that it was such a good idea to let her go with them?" he worried about Ino. She was family, and always would be with how close their families were tied together.

Asuma sighed as he felt a chakra presence nearby, "She is fine. For now... we need to see what Kakashi had been teaching you." Once he said that, a long snakelike arm shot from the trees, which Asuma side stepped simply already expecting an attack. He grabbed onto the arm and yanked the attack out of the tree while Chouji and Shikamaru got into a fighting stance.

Another shinobi with black goggle like shades jumped out from the brush, "I told you that wouldn't work on a jounin."

The rubber band man scowled at his partner, and retracted his arm slipping it right out of Asuma's grasp in an instant. "Shut up, take the teacher. I'll take the twig and the fat kid."

Asuma sighed, 'Chouji is likely going to flip...' he thought to himself with a frown. 'I just hope their comments don't cloud his judgement.'

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Naruto landed on his knees holding his gut in pain. Next to him stood Konan, or he hoped it was Konan. However he knew that hope in these situations was useless. He now knew what exactly tore when he was fighting Peace. It didn't make sense, from what he knew the seal was supposed to be stronger then that.

Peace looked on with narrowed eyes, he knew that the woman was no longer human judging from the eyes that she gained through that interaction. The question was how powerful she was. He felt fairly confident that he could take a one or two tailed demon. Possibly even three tailed demon as he had often beaten Yagura in spars.

The blue haired woman however didn't seem to be the least bit worried, _"I suggest you leave while you have your down payment."_ she appeared to try and give a toothy grin but scowled.

_"Definitely not my personal preference to be my body..." _she scowled as she looked over her body, not in the least bit worried about the skilled fighter across from her.

_"The hair color needs to change, I like her choice in nail polish however..." _she began to mumble to herself as she examined her appearance, saying things along the lines of, _"She has a pretty good figure, It actually feels rather nice to have a chest back for once. Oh and this is fun, no wonder you humans get lip piercings, they are fun to play with." _she said as she began to lick the part of the piercing inside of her mouth.

_"She was good with paper, I'm surprised all of this shit covering her body didn't give her paper cuts."_ the blue haired woman scowled as she peeled a sheet of paper that was covering her cheek before putting it back in place.

Naruto scowled as he knew for a fact who was in the body now. His first teacher, his only real teacher taken over by a demon. The thought made him angry and grit his teeth.

Naruto swung his blade at the fox as hard as he could, anger behind his attack. His look was rather comical when the woman caught his blade like it was nothing while the fire blew up chunks of rock on the bridge behind her, yet she was unscathed.

Peace however was far more skilled. He instantly leaned back with two hands on his sword, and in an instant several mirror images of him holding his blade in a different image appeared behind him. It was like lightning. Several streaks of light slash across and straight through the demon. The first attack was used to get Naruto out of the way, but he couldn't help but scowl.

It may be like lightning to your everyday shinobi, or to the untrained eye. Yet to him, the woman just side stepped every attack that came her way.

Peace launched himself at her in hopes to get a hit in on her when her back was turned. His blade sang as he came at the demon indicating how fast the blade was moving.

Kyuubi grinned and turned around catching Peace at the neck, and gripping his blade covering the eye, _"Ohhhh what has made you so strong?"_

Peace glared at her 'So this is what staring death in the face is like.' he spit in her face, hitting her on the cheek, "I don't feel like telling you."

Kyuubi tossed him down to the ground gently, with enough force to just send him on his ass. She laughed lightly and wiped the spit from her cheek. Peace thought that he was getting another opportunity to attack the woman... he thought wrong.

Kyuubi's eyes went from soft to seriousness in a matter of seconds. Before Peace could even get up on decent footing, Kyuubi seemingly grasped at air and yanked forward.

Now in the world of humans, grasping as air does absolutely nothing, especially in a fight. However, when you are a god among humans... grasping at air has different effects.

Peace was lifted upside down and yanked in front of Kyuubi, held there by an invisible force right in front of her eyes. _"If you spit on me again, I will permanently cripple you, and destroy that sword you hold so dear. Of course, right after I destroy what you are fighting for back home."_

Peace grit his teeth at the notion that she knew about his wife and child that he had to leave home in the mist since he could never return. He clenched his fists, and was tempted to spit in her face once again if there weren't the repercussions of doing such a thing. He didn't get to think much more on the idea as the woman launched him off the bridge and into the water skipping like a flat rock along the water. The impact alone must have broken his ribs, there was no way he was fighting again today. If he lived he would be lucky.

Naruto on the other hand grit his teeth as he tried to stand, no longer empowered with Kyuubi's chakra. He was considerably exhausted. He gave on last lazy swing at Kyuubi, however he fell short. Kyuubi looked down at the boy with a cold gaze. She stepped on the blade, while his fingers were under the hander effectively squeezing pinching and nearly crushing them. She took another step, and stepped on Naruto's wrist which in turn made him gasp and look up at her with narrowed eyes.

Of all people to possess she had to pick Konan?

"How?" Naruto asked gritting his teeth. This shouldn't even be possible.

Kyuubi grinned, _"I have been waiting to tell you, Naruto-kun."_

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_"It started off when the blond girl wanted to snoop around in your mind. She wanted to find out why the black haired girl had won you over. I thought it was obvious." _Kyuubi began as she took a knee in front of Naruto, painfully on his hand. She checked out her reflection in a puddle on the ground while yelling, "You can come out old man! I don't bite... hard!" she yelled the last bit as an after thought.

"Oh really Kyuubi, and why was it obvious?"

Kyuubi was looking at her reflection in the water and sighed before turning to Naruto, _"Do you like this shade of red?"_ she turned her hair a fiery color that Naruto had seen in their earlier encounters. _"Or this color?"_ she promptly turned her hair color a blood red.

Naruto rolled his eyes, "Neither, answer the question."

Kyuubi had an expression of mock shock, _"Neither!"_ she said exaggerating a gasp, _"But red is the best color ever!"_

Naruto scowled at the jab Kyuubi took at him. He did like orange, but he had to admit he was sometimes over the top.

Naruto glared at the woman before him, if Kyuubi was going to be a smart ass, he could be one too. "I like the blue you have right now, it matches my eyes."

Kyuubi grinned, _"Sorry, but this is my body, and red matches my eyes."_

Naruto grit his teeth, "It isn't even you fucking body!" he violently shook his arm trying to get Kyuubi off.

Kyuubi however stabbed a single finger into his back, _"Hold still."_ Naruto's eyes however were completely widened once she did that. That felt like lava was being poured into his skin when she initially stabbed her finger in.

_'Hold still... you stupid fucking bitch, you just stabbed me and want me to hold still.'_ Naruto thought with a scowl on his face.

Kyuubi pressed a bit harder into his body with her fingers, not bothering to apologize and merely said, _"I may be out of your body now, but I can still hear your thoughts."_

Naruto began taking deep breaths, it is official, this is by far the most pain he had ever been in throughout his entire life.

Naruto could see a battle going on at the opposite end of the bridge, it appeared that his team was taking on a large group of bandits. Gatou was among them, he appeared dead on the ground with several senbon sticking out of his neck.

"You never answered my question." Naruto said with a groan as she began to casually twist her finger back and forth in his back as she applied different make up combinations through use of her illusions.

Kyuubi began to hum to herself as she quipped back, _"And you never answered mine."_

Naruto rolled his eyes, "Fine I like the fiery red!" he said in defeat.

Kyuubi smiled, at him before saying, _"Alright blood red it is!" _before quickly changing the blue hair color that defined his first teacher and made her original. While the red hair color still... was rather original. He had never seen anyone in his life with red hair, blue matched his eyes. Therefore red was worse.

The annoyance that was all over was Naruto's face was one of the biggest rewards she had gotten in the past twelve years of her life.

Kyuubi licked her lips lightly before taking out her finger from Naruto's back. He of course breathed a sigh of relief, until Kyuubi choose to use him as a seat instead of the wet ground below. She healed his wound of course, but not before putting major pressure on the hole in his back.

Naruto winced, "Do you love causing me pain?"

Kyuubi continued to watch the battle at the other end of the bridge with a gleam in her eye. She turned her head lightly, not looking at Naruto, not wanting to take her eyes off the battle. _"I prefer agony... but we have a love hate relationship anyways."  
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Naruto tried to shake her off of his back, "We don't have _any _relationship." he said putting emphasis on any as he grit his teeth.

Kyuubi thought about sticking several fingers into the boys back before she resigned to just patting him on the head, _"Of course we do Naruto-kun. You can't get rid of me because of some seal placed on you when you were a kid, and I can't get rid of y-..." _she paused for a moment_, "Well I can technically just destroy you, wad you up, use your bones as tooth picks before personally tossing you out into the middle of the ocean. However! I can't get rid of you because... well your just too much fun!"_ she ruffled his blond hair rather roughly with a huge grin on her face.

Naruto however was annoyed, annoyed with the circumstances and with the truth to her statement. He was only alive because Kyuubi found him interesting. _'Lets hope that I stay interesting...' _he thought with a frown on his face.

Kyuubi sighed as she wiped the blood off of her finger in a puddle, _"Anyways I encountered the blond girl..." _she pointed across the bridge to Ino ducking under a punch thrown at her from a bandit. "_when I was in your head the other night. As I said she was wondering why you picked that Haku girl over her. So I went up behind her when she foolishly walked into my cage, and began holding her and kissing her while not letting her know it was me. You should of saw her face, she really thought it was you when I was kissing up her neck. How she wanted you outside of your mind that night. She melted in my arms when I nibbled on her ear."_

Naruto was getting angrier and angrier, he didn't want to say anything in order to not make Kyuubi mad, or make her stop telling him the story. It was just frustrating that she would go into exact detail on what she did to Ino while she pretended to be him.

_"It was really quite funny that she didn't recognize it wasn't you. I guess you just have girly arms." Kyuubi said in amusement._

Naruto scowled, "Or maybe you just have manly arms."

Kyuubi paused for a few moments. 'Good one.' she thought with a smirk on her face. She chose not to address that any further and continued on, "_So anyways... when she found out I wasn't you. I got quite an entertaining show. She screamed, started kicking, the type of thing most of you creatures do when something is about to brutally murder you? Like those movies you went to go see in your pathetic village when you were younger. I held her by her hair and started yanking her around. Once I beat her up enough, it was easy to just tell her to tear off the piece of paper and I would let her go."_

Naruto's eyes widened at that, '_Ino let Kyuubi go free?'_

Kyuubi knew she wasn't supposed to respond but couldn't pass up the opportunity, _"Of course she did, weren't you listening to anything I was saying."  
_  
Naruto scowled at the fox reading his thoughts, "No sorry you were drawling." he rolled quickly out from under her allowing himself to get up and dust off before grabbing the blade off the ground.

Kyuubi stood there about five or six inches taller then Naruto and looked at him in wonder. She just paused for a moment before coming out and saying what was on her mind openly, "_Your interesting..."_

Naruto frowned, "I know." he didn't really care right now. He looked over to the other side of the bridge. The group of them had finished off the remaining bandits either through knock out or death. Haku seemed to be standing relatively close to Gato before she turned to Kakashi and whispered something to him. Once she said whatever it was she was trying to say, she grabbed Gato's body and disappeared in a swirl of leaves.

It hurt a bit knowing that Haku wasn't coming to see if he was okay, like Ino was doing right now. The difference was, he was frustrated with Ino right now. She had invaded his privacy, and then she released Kyuubi.

Naruto walked past Kyuubi calmly over to his team and Ino approaching him. Sasuke's clothes were incredibly bloodied which made Naruto raise an eyebrow. Sakura had looked better before. Ino however was avoiding Naruto's gaze. She had looked over his shoulder to the red headed woman, and quickly excused herself.

Naruto knew if it was some romantic movie, he was suppose to call out to her and tell her it is fine she was in a hard situation. However, he couldn't justly spout bullshit like that right now. He had a long day, and he was sure that this day will have changed his life forever. She screwed up with him, then she invaded his head, and brought about one of his worst nightmares. She deserved to feel guilty and shouldn't be able to look him in the eye right now.

He didn't look at the demon behind him, but he knew she was there. Especially when she made him scowl when she said in a sing song voice,

"_How could you be so heartless?"_

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Thanks everyone for your opinions on Karin. I hope you liked this chapter by the way, it was definitely my favorite to write. (This is because of Kyuubi's personality that I want to give her.)

Anyways if you guys were wondering, a couple chapters back I asked you guys to give me a female character that you would like to see with a bigger part. Well the bigger part was their physical body being around more. They would of been controlled by Kyuubi. I denied Anko, even though a lot of people wanted her. My reason was... Anko is a bit crazy, so her and Kyuubi are not that far off. They are both rather sadistic as well. So I don't think it would have been as fun for me to write. It is also why I oddly enough felt Hinata would have been one of the perfect characters to use. The difference was I could actually make an in depth plot for Konan and Ayame, and that is why I chose Konan.(Mainly because she has powerful enemies and powerful people that look out for her.)

I hope you like what I did with Kyuubi. Her and Naruto are going to have a love hate relationship. Right now it even to me seems that out of all the girls in his life he is closest to Kyuubi at the moment. However everyone will come around in their own way sooner or later. Some earlier then others.

I have taken every sound shinobi that you have listed into consideration. Two of the reoccurring names however are already planned lol. You can likely already guess who they are. (Someone actually already did. However I am waiting till the chunin exam beginning chapter to release the names.

I wont go into a major character break down today. Peace will return, indirectly later in the story. I hope that the comment Kyuubi made gave a better insight on why he was doing this. It will be highlighted on more later on, he was really put in a tight spot.

**Who would you like to see Naruto fight in the chunin exam Preliminaries?**

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**Did you think I did a good job with Kyuubi's personality? Rate on 1-10 how you like her current personality.**


	13. What A Hundred Billion Yen Looks Like

"Thank you miss..." Kakashi paused as they sat down at the table inside Tazuna's house. It was the first dinner they were going to have without the fear of Gato coming in and confiscating their food.

"Konan." the red headed woman said with a smile as she blew gently on her hot bowl in front of her while she tucked a few strands of hair behind her ear.

Kakashi smiled a bit under his mask as he looked at her, "Right, thank you for saving my student. We all felt the chakra burst coming from down at the bridge, we thought something bad was happening to Naruto."

Kyuubi looked taken aback for a moment and gave a look of mock shock, "Ohh Naruto-kun?" she reached over to the boy she was sitting next to, "He was doing great against Peace... Well of course until the man started trying. I think he knew I was there want wanted to draw me out of hiding. I think Naruto is just extremely lucky that the man decided to toy with him and I was able to come in at the last moment and stop the fight."

Naruto scoffed at that, but once Kyuubi stepped roughly on his foot under the table, the scoff turned into something more akin to a gasp. It was rather ungraceful, and caused quiet a bit of attention as he hit his bowl with his arm spilling some soup onto the table which in turn attracted the attention of Sakura.

"Naruto! Be more careful." she reprimanded him with a frown. They were still guests in Tazuna and Tsunami's house. He should at least be showing proper table manners.

Naruto gave a weak smile and resisted rolling his eyes, he felt like his foot had been ran over by a wagon carrying sand.

Kyuubi paused and took a sip of her soup, doing her best to be charming. Much to Naruto's displeasure, it was working particularly well on the older males in the room. She gently crossed her arms and leaned forward on the table, making sure that her arms pushed up her bust a fair amount before asking, "So your name is Sasuke, correct?" she designated the Uchiha who was currently eating his soup quietly, little red specs on his neck. Blood that he couldn't wash off effectively in the bathroom before dinner. It seemed that "Ladies first" applied regardless of how dirty the men were in the household.

Sasuke' looked at the possessed woman with one eye open before pushing his bowl away gently, "Yeah..." he said slowly trying to understand what she was getting at.

The degrees in the room dropped quite a bit when she asked, "So... I saw a lot of blood on your shirt today at the bridge, do you enjoy killing?" there was a small gleam in her eye as the strands of hair she tucked behind her ear fell back to the front of her face.

Everyone waited on Sasuke's response, he had closed his eyes and reached for his bowl. He wasn't anything like his brother and said, "Of course not. I just did what needed to be done to complete the mission."

Kakashi however on the other hand thought that Sasuke sounded exactly like his older brother, he couldn't help but let that get to him and make him worry a bit.

Kyuubi rested back and sighed, "Well that is too bad, I am retired now. However I personally believe that you can't go long doing a job that you don't like. A shinobi is supposed to kill, if you don't like to do it you are more likely to get burnt out."

The seasoned jounin tensed, they looked ready to spring on a moments notice, Asuma had to ask the question, "So are you saying that you enjoy killing Konan-san?"

Naruto raised an eyebrow at how she planned to answer this question, but resisted rolling his eyes when she brought her bowl close to her again preparing to eat, but not before saying, "I like the color red."

Naruto had never had a beer or sake before, but he felt that if he had this would be one of those times where he would say 'I need a drink.' Naruto sighed and picked up the bowl in front of him, and through years of practically inhaling his ramen, he drank Tsunami's soup instantly.

"Excuse me." Naruto said standing up running a hand through his hair, "I need to go get some fresh air." and promptly walked out of the house, near slamming the front door.

Kyuubi grinned as Naruto left. It was rather comforting knowing that she had an effect on the boy inside and outside of the seal, she didn't even need to address him.

"So... besides your student leaving up, tell me what exactly happened with your team when everyone was down on the bridge Asuma-san?" It nearly killed her to give this much respect to a monkey, literally in more ways then one.

Asuma sighed, "Well Chouji is currently recovering. Despite his talents, the shinobi they were fighting was still able to strangulate him. However once Chouji was unconscious Shikamaru said he was able to tie stick the enemy with an exploding note. The fight ended momentarily after that."

Kyuubi raised an eyebrow, "And your enemy?"

Asuma scoffed at the woman's question, he was a jounin. "Yeah... he got cut up pretty badly. He didn't stand a chance."

Kyuubi's eyes narrowed when Asuma scoffed, she wanted to break his fingers one by one for doing something that insulting, however she kept her cool. "That explains why one of your students aren't eating with us, but it doesn't explain why the other two are absent."

Asuma sighed, he went for a cigarette in his pocket, but the glare he received from Tsunami sitting across from him clearly told him 'Don't even think about it.'

"Shikamaru is upstairs with Chouji, recovering from his first kill. Ino said she felt under the weather, but I think it was for similar reasons that she chose to turn in early." Asuma reasoned before finishing his statement with a shrug.

Kyuubi continued trying to make conversations with the people in the room, which was fairly easy. All she had to do was ask simple questions based off answers to questions she had previously asked. "So Kakashi-san, why is it that your students don't seem too affected by the outcome of their battle?"

Next to her the pink haired girl groaned at the thought of her part during the battle. She pushed her bowl away and put her elbows on the table, hands over her eyes groaning, "Speak for yourself..."

Kyuubi couldn't help but smirk at the girl, shaken up by killing something? See this is one of the reasons why demons are superior to humans. 'We realize life is simple, only the strong survive. We don't make silly attachments and baseline beliefs throughout nations that it isn't politically correct to kill another human being. These mortals are foolish, creating occupations where your number one task is to kill people and then saying it is wrong to enjoy it.'

Kyuubi sighed as she leaned back and crossed her arms, "Well that covers everyone except, where is that brunette girl?"

Kakashi paused at the mention of Haku. She had been gone for an incredibly long time now, had she run? "She said she was going to dispose of Gato's body. I don't really know where she is right now."

The sound of rain instantly coming down on the house filled everyone's ears. The beating and tapping sounds it gave off when it hit the house and fell off of different parts of the roof. Kyuubi could sense the chakra in the rain and raised an eyebrow before turning to the group at the table. "Yes well, I am sure that someone will bring her back or she will come back on her own. It is getting rather late, and with this storm, she may get lost unless somebody is able to find her in it.

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Naruto's walk had been just that, a walk. Nothing out of the ordinary until he activated his newly learned jutsu over the town. He mine as well practice it, even if it wasn't exactly the best thing that he could do for the people in wave that were growing crops the best they could. They were likely over watered by now.

However his interest was peaked when he felt Haku's chakra signature, along with a signature that was incredibly weak. It practically wasn't there. It was about a couple miles into the woods, he couldn't help but break into a run and go to check it out.

It didn't take long, being a ninja did have it's bonuses. One of those bonuses was the ability to run a fast as most wagons going thirty or so miles an hour without much training. When he got there he was surprised with what he saw.

Haku must not have noticed him with her either being distracted, or due to the rain being to loud to overhear his presence. In front of her was Gato tied to a tree, shirtless. On the stump next to her were several assortments of tools, senbons, pliers, a medical scalpel.

Gato had various cuts littering his body and chest, some of them were rather gruesome. For example the "Murderer" carved across his belly. The man appeared to be missing his right nipple as well. He had the eyes of a man that had long since lost the will to live. His eyes were red from rain going into them, or was it from tears falling out of them.

He couldn't really tell, yet what he did see was Haku pick up the scalpel and a senbon. She stuck a senbon right at the top of his shoulder on his left side before saying something to herself.

"Incision along the left forearm."

The man screamed bloody murder as his arm was cut into by the sharp knife, and his flesh was cut open, allowing the rain to splash into it making it all the more irritating.

"Tell me where you keep your funds." Haku's statement was icy, almost a different person than he was used to. He realized why Kyuubi liked Haku more then Ino. She could seemingly be just as sadistic as Kyuubi when she needed to be. It nearly contradicted the loving girl he had gotten to know the past couple of days.

Gato stayed strong and refused to answer the girl. If he was going to be tortured to death, if he could have it his way no one would lay a hand on his money in the process.

Haku's eyes narrowed, "It would appear I need to go lower then?" she asked icily as she made a quick shallow swipe near the waist. Not enough to draw a flow of blood, but enough to stick like an annoying paper cut being splashed with water.

Gato grinned, opening his mouth showing his bloody teeth. Or what teeth remained.

Naruto flinched a bit when he saw that, 'Well thats what the pliers were for...'

"Only if you use your mouth you filthy whore." Gato gasped out, but his grin remained the same despite the pain he was in.

Haku raised an eyebrow, "No thank you." she said giving a fake smile right before she stabbed the scalpel into Gato's leg. "Please hold still while I unbuckle your pants."

Gato once again screamed, once his pants were unbuckled, she hadn't even bothered to remove the medical knife. She just pulled his pants and underwear down in one swift motion, the knife dragging and cutting his leg before it fell out into the muddy ground below.

Haku sighed, "My apologies if you are cold." she said as she picked up the muddy scalpel. "Do you plan to talk yet?"

Gato spit blood at her to the best of his ability. He was lacking energy, and lacking teeth.

Haku looked down at her shinobi outfit, and blood now dripping down it, "Have it your way." She spun the knife around in the mud some before picking it up and saying,

"Incision from the base down to the head of the penis..."

Naruto flinched and held his package. She sounded completely serious, that was most likely why Gato chose that moment to crack.

"Okay! It is located down at the shipping crates down by the docks. It is inside the only black shipping container. The safe combination is 12-19-24. Please don't cut me there!"

It was rather entertaining to see Gato scream and squirm like a little girl like she was told she was going to have to take a bath. However he couldn't complain, if he found out that some sadist was about to make a cut down the length of his manhood, he would likely squirm like a little girl too.

Haku made a move to make the cut anyways and Naruto grimaced and called out, "Haku..."

Haku looked extremely startled, and fearful. 'How much of that did he see?' she thought as she made a proper impression of a fish. She seemed at a loss for words which caused Naruto to sigh.

"Don't worry about it, leave him here... lets go down to the shipping docks." he said it calmly, but there was no mistaking it, it was an order.

Haku looked back at the man and couldn't help but feel frustrated at the fact that it wasn't going to be her that took care of him. However what Naruto said next made her not feel so bad at the idea of leaving him here.

"Let the wolves have him."

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Naruto and Haku both made it down to the docks in a relatively quick time. The docks despite the rainy weather were full of people digging into crates. With Gato gone, people were all rejoicing and taking their goods back. Many weren't even stealing, which was something the average person would do in this situation. The people were just so excited to have their stuff back, there were various calls out in the crowd of items found in the crates.

The good thing for them however was, the people were searching through the stacks crates, going for the ones on the ground floor first. The crate they needed was black, and near the top of the pile. It stuck out like a sore thumb in the midst of various green, red, and yellow crates.

"So was this why you haven't been talking to me lately?" Naruto asked, trying to remain relatively calm about the whole ordeal. Haku didn't say anything for a bit and chose to get to work on the initial lock on the crate with a couple senbon.

"I encountered Warren Peace a few days ago..." she began with a frown on her face, "He spared me when I was inside Zabuza's former hideout. Gato ordered him to capture me and he didn't. I didn't particularly want to participate in fighting Peace." she said as she popped open the lock and walked inside. There was a rack right on the side that had a couple flash lights hanging from it. Someone had been trading with Ame it would seem.

Naruto stepped in after Haku and grabbed a flashlight, "So instead of working on a way to take Peace down you were working on a method to take down Gato?" Naruto frowned.

Haku nodded as she approached the safe near the back of the crate, and motioned for Naruto to shine the light there. Haku paused, "You should have one of your clones do it..." she said quietly, moving to the back of the crate and opening it. They had no clue if Gato even decided to put traps all around the crate. He didn't seem like the kind of man to even bother with that sort of thing since he seemed to believe he ran everything. However one couldn't be too sure.

As one of Naruto's shadow clones went up and began to turn the proper dial for the safe, Naruto turned to Haku. "So you knew that Peace was out enemy all of this time, and yet you didn't feel like telling me?"

Haku sighed, "I thought I gave you a big enough clue way before I even encountered Peace at the hideout when I said we would likely be seeing the man soon."

Naruto groaned, it could of been life and death and Haku put his life in the hands of a hint. That was a bit unsettling. A sound of a latch coming undone, and the gobsmacked expression of a shadow clone at the end of the crate was all he need to know that Gato was in fact not smart enough to trap his funds.

They walked over to vault hidden in the crate and could help but be surprised and frown at the implications.

"So this is what a hundred billion yen looks like?" Naruto wasn't expecting an answer to his statement. There were stacks upon stacks of money inside the vault along with deeds, including deeds to the docks which Gato illegally owned. The man must have bled the country dry, this was only the amount of money that would come from a country that was formerly booming.

"Naruto... I think we should take some of it." Naruto spun around on Haku in surprise.

"What do you mean we should take some of it? Haku... this money belongs to the people of wave." Naruto said with a frown on his face, trying to convince himself. There was a lot of money there. He used to struggle for money in Konoha, and here he was with enough money to last him several life times staring him in the face.

"Yet we saved these people Naruto. They would still be in poverty if it wasn't for us." Haku tried to reason, nearly pleading with him to take the money.

Naruto frowned, "If it wasn't for me Haku. _Me..._" he said with emphasis, "Until recently you were going to kill the bridge builder Haku..."

Haku looked like she got slapped in the face before closing her mouth and staying silent. No point in arguing the truth in that. She gave a final parting comment however, "Money is power Naruto-sama..."

Naruto paused as Haku added the suffix to his name once again. He took a deep breath suppressing a shiver, thats what she called him in bed a few nights ago. The suffix to him, getting respect for the first time in his life was rather intoxicating.

Naruto grit his teeth, suppressing a grin, "Fine. Take twenty to twenty-five percent of it. Better yet, teach me how to seal it in a storage scroll."

Haku smiled when she realized that Naruto was going to see things her way and take the money. It wasn't that she had anything against the people in Wave. It was just they had next to no money, besides the pay that she received up front from Gato. She had yet to tell Naruto anything about that, and planned to keep it that way. The only reason this was working was because they were both effectively broke, and needed money. If it turned out that they actually had money Naruto may reconsider.

Haku sighed, finally being able to live rather comfortably, she showed Naruto how to seal nearly 250 million dollars into a scroll.

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With the morale of the village extremely high with the defeat of Gato, it took no time for the bridge to be completed. All of the villagers pitched in, even the women if they weren't physically helping out, then they were cooking and preparing lunches to bring to the men while they worked on the bridge.

With the man power of an entire village behind them, they had completed the bridge in a matter of days. Those said days, Naruto abused his power of being designated as team leader. Instead of directly working on the bridge, he sent a dozen clones there each morning before saying he had to continue writing his mission report. Which was a partial truth, he had paced himself in doing a little bit each day. However the majority of the time was spent reconnecting with Haku, and trying his best to learn how to copy her ice manipulation. It was probably one of the most frustrating things he had ever experienced in his entire life to be doing everything correctly yet not being able to perfectly pull something off.

That was why he found himself talking to one of the most annoying people he ever had the displeasure of knowing, and yet at the same time likely the most knowledgeable and strongest individual he would likely ever know.

"Let me get this straight? You want to learn how to manipulate water and ice and freeze things like your little girlfriend over there?" Kyuubi pointed over to Haku who was pushing a cart with several slabs of stone in it down the bridge.

Naruto rolled his eyes, "I have been saying that this entire time!"

Kyuubi picked a piece of meat out of her teeth with one of her painted fingernails before asking, "Why the hell would you want to learn that? Fire manipulation is far more fun. Here watch!"

She snapped her finger in the direction of several men carrying a stone block, only for the block to burst into dust and rubble before turning into grain.

Naruto had wide eyes similar to Kyuubi's at the moment, but for different reasons. "What the hell are you trying to do? Destroy the bridge?"

Kyuubi rolled her eyes, "Relax, this bridge will likely fall in fifty years anyways, you mortals never build anything that lasts." acting completely oblivious to the house wives that were standing around nearby that could overhear the mortals comment.

"Are you fucking kidding me? Be quiet, I am already writing in this report that all this crap with you, Ino, and myself never happened. I would like it to be kept that way." Naruto nearly snarled out the last part.

"Ahhh poor Naru-kun, turning more fox like already. With the lying and the growling, if only you weren't so tiny..." Kyuubi cooed at him as if he was a child which was rather frustrating, but was also something that he chose to ignore to the best of his ability.

"It's fine, I like being small. Weren't you beaten by someone my size 12 years ago?" Naruto jabbed at her verbally.

Kyuubi shrugged, "And yet I am alive and the blond man is not?" she said as she leaned back on her hands, her figure catching the sun perfectly. It actually provided many of the males in the area with some nice eye candy, much to the displeasure of their wives.

Kyuubi began clicking her feet together as they dangled over the side of a wooden crate they were sitting on, "So I still don't understand, why ice over fire?"

Naruto sighed he had explained this time after time to her, "I don't understand why it bothers you so much. Can you or can you not do something to help me learn different affinities?"

Kyuubi merely scoffed at Naruto, "Please don't insult me, altering your pathetic races DNA is likely one of the simplest things I can do. Did you know that I can make you grow eight more eyes, and thirteen more fingers with a touch of the hand?"

Naruto paused... no he did not know that. However that suddenly gave him just another reason to be weary of her. If she ever got in a bad mood, he could go from interesting, to play thing in a matter of seconds and suddenly start growing things in unwanted places.

"So does that mean that you will open up my affinities for me?" Naruto asked hopefully.

Kyuubi stared at Naruto for a moment, before shrugging, "On One condition, I can call in any one favor from you whenever I want."

Naruto stared at Kyuubi for a moment before outstretching his hand, "Just nothing sexual, I don't need to ruin any relationships I could be building because you are influencing my life even when you aren't in my body."

Kyuubi rolled her eyes, "Please, don't flatter yourself. I could have you begging for me to sleep with you if I wanted to, you haven't earned it yet. This sad puppy begging routine isn't getting you any points for the department either if you were interested."

Naruto scowled as she laid a hand on his back, "Sorry, I don't want to catch any demon stds from you." he whispered the last half of that quietly so that no one nearby would hear.

Kyuubi smiled before yelling it his ear as the sound of a drill came about from down the bridge, "What I'm Sorry! Did you say more pain?" she yelled, all the while utterly enjoying the situation.

Naruto's scream was drowned out by the drill in the background, however anyone that looked at his face before he hid it in his lap would have seen his giant wide eyes and wide open mouth as he yelled bloody murder. It felt as if every single part of his body was on fire and being reconstructed. Even if there were no visible changes to his body, he most definitely felt changes.

About a half hour later when the back to back drilling stopped, Naruto had since wiped the tears of pain from his eyes, and opted to lay down flat on his back and cover his eyes from the sun with his hands. Yep Kyuubi may act like she hates him, and is only there to cause him pain. However, she helped him with something that put him far ahead of anyone else in the ninja world that he knew of. He just hoped that favor that he owes her wouldn't come back to bite him in the ass later on in life.

For now, he needed to sleep. The bridge was supposed to be done at the end of the day. They would be catching a ride back in a trader's wagon to Konoha. If he could for once in the last few days forget about everything that was going on and just get some peaceful sleep, he would be happy.

So he drifted off to sleep thinking about what he could do, now being likely the richest individual person with residence in Konoha besides Sasuke.

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**Since I have yet to see Kyuubi like this, can you please rate her on a scale of 1-10 again personality wise. I am trying to develop a baseline for what you believe Kyuubi should be acting like. Overall last chapter it seemed pretty good, some said she could be a bit more sadistic. However I wasn't going for a complete sadist, so anyways I am interesting in what you all think.**

I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter and got some answers from it. This chapter was mainly highlighting Haku's dstance to Naruto, and the aftermath of Kyuubi being released.

I got some comments about Naruto not giving Ino a hard enough time, just sit tight.

I feel rather foolish giving Naruto that type of money right now thinking about it, however I don't think it really hurts the story much since he is going to be effectively tied up well into time skip and from what I personally see right now, no plausible time to use his money.

Naruto and affinities, I actually expecting some sort of flame or what not about what I have done here. Either it being Kyuubi is too powerful, or your setting Naruto up to being too powerful.

I don't think I am as of right now... he has lost Kyuubi, have a sword with great potential that he has yet to learn how to use. He has likely one of the best tracking abilities/ avoiding tracking abilities around, but aside from that he hasn't learned much.

Tell me what you thought about the scenes in this chapter. I personally want the scenes with Haku and Naruto at the crates, and Haku torturing Gato to be rated on a scale of 1-10.

Quick note: This is the last time I will ever use Yen as the currency to describe how much money is where or blah blah blah whatever. From now on I am using dollars, if you want to be overly critical about it and say "NARUTOVERSE DOESN'T USE DOLLARS!" fine, convert it on your own time. It was just that the money I had to covert myself, because I couldn't find a calculator for it, and it is far more frustrating when you want to try and pull a number out of your bum that is just chump change.

Anyways... rate the scenes and 1 more thing I have decided to add in as of now.

A Priority list. This list is just showing the two things on the top of my mind at the moment as development goes and what not.

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1: Sasuke

2: Haku's residence

3: Ino, and the Kyuubi incident problem being addressed.

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Just because something you felt that should be listed there wasn't doesn't mean it isn't being worked on. It just means it is not at the top of my list. For example, Naruto's blade. Doesn't really need to be expanded on for quite a few more chapters.


	14. I Never Meant For It To Be This Way

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

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"So do you think we will get paid for an A rank?" came the gruff voice of the chain smoking jounin. He stared across the wagon they were riding in watching his partner jounin, it was nice of the people of wave to give their team a ride back to Konoha. However it did promote laziness, the genin from Konoha had fallen asleep.

"Your team probably will be paid as such, however I doubt it will count for my team. I screwed up, I should have forced my team to go back to Konoha. However on the other hand, Naruto really stepped it up on this mission and took it to a bar I never expected from him. I would imagine he would be a shoe if for being promoted, that of course if it wasn't for the fact that the chunin exams are right around the corner." The masked shinobi said with a single smile from his uncovered eye.

Asuma took a huff of his cigarette. That much was true, everyone that was attending the chunin exams likely already wanted to see the Uchiha fight despite him being a rookie. Asuma turned to the woman sitting in the corner of the cart that seemed content with watching Naruto sleep. Of course, that wasn't far off from what the black haired female of the group was doing. "So Konan, where is it that you plan to go once we get to Konoha?"

Kyuubi didn't respond for a moment, not recognizing her supposed name before she turned to the jounin and smiled. "Oh I don't know, I think I may get a hotel for a night or two before going on my way." she said with a small smile gracing her lips. The humans were far more predictable than Naruto was, it was pathetic. They appeared weary of her half of the time, and the other half of the time they were trying to start small talk with her. With doing actions such as that, she found it ironic that they felt the need to diagnose people with... what did the humans call it? Bi Polar... syndrome? She couldn't remember, nor did she really care. She was far more interested in what Naruto planned to do when he got to the training ground and tried to manipulate ice, and of course failed. He merely asked for all chakra affinities, nothing about combining said chakra affinities. She gave him what he wanted. Perhaps the boy would finally see it her way and learn how to use fire.

It was going to be a few hours before they reached Konoha and everything was going smooth, besides the wagon rolling over nature's little speed bumps... squirrels.

She really didn't know whether she wanted to stay close to Naruto, or go off and do her own thing. Despite being a demon, she too had contacts. More specifically however, she had eight other main contacts.

She was able to easily trick the people in the group since no one knew what Kyuubi or this Konan acted like. The blonde girl kept her mouth shut like a good lesser being should. Her test subject, Naruto however really wanted to find a way to turn her in without getting him and Ino in trouble. When he whispered that to her in the wagon, she could only laugh. 'Oh really, and what is your plan to do once you find out I'm free? Do you really think I will fall for the same mistake twice? Fool me once shame on me...' she left the quote open. It was a known saying across the ninja nations, especially in war. Iwa during the wars often put themselves in the same situations that Konoha's Yellow Flash could dominate. That was enclosed spaces.

How she knew about the wars? Please, she wasn't completely blind when it came to the shinobi world. She just didn't like making contact with humans. While some of their characteristics are interesting, for example this bodies lip ring. The extreme jealousy they feel, the hunger they felt for power. It was pathetic. She of course made sure to never say that to Naruto, he would just give some smart-ass remark like, "Well that is easy for the most powerful person in the world to say."

She opted to listen much more then talk during the wagon ride, as did the black haired shinobi, however she seemed nervous. Hell, she would be too if she was as weak as her and was forced to be brought in front of a council of shinobi and let them pass judgment on what she can and cannot do. Of course... that would never happen seeing as she would never be as weak as a petulant human.

The idea of remaining low key on her true self was frustrating. Not to mention, there was this ring that kept calling out to her. Yes, she knew what it did, it was obviously used for communication. Yet no, she couldn't use it with all these humans around. For all she knew, they didn't even know about this kind of technology.

There was one thing that made her happy however. It was her power, it was at its absolute height. Humans did get one thing right, which was rather frustrating. If a shinobi ever learned how to completely control their demon through the use and training of their body, then they could gain a level of power higher then that of the original tailed beast.

However, since she just found a way to eliminate the process of learning how to use her power all over again by just directly taking over a person's body... she was at her prime. She was surprised she hadn't thought of this before, it was much easier then several complex illusions over herself.

This body probably wasn't the best body to choose seeing as how she likely had allies that were shinobi and would probably come after her in a hissy fit. It wasn't like they were dangerous to her in any way however, she probably should have taken one of the woman's bodies from wave. The only problem with them however was... they were all flat chested.

Now, that wasn't a completely horrible problem, except for the fact that often times with human men it would appear that beauty is translated to their brains from their bust and ass first then the face and personality. She scowled, that was an annoying thought. She idly wondered what the sleeping blonde in front of her, her former container was thinking about when he looked at her. If he was looking at her body, or her face and actually liking her personality.

She grimaced, she must sound like a human the age of the runts around her. Why would she care what the boy thought, rude or not she could just beat that thought process out of him. Teach him how to think more like a demon.

Demons were a lot like the gods that humans randomly heard about in myths. They could change their form into anything they wanted, even bulls if they wanted. So when they choose a spouse or someone they would spend the rest of their life with they went for personality. Sure there were the few gods and demons that looked better then all the rest. That thought made her scowl as it reminded her of a demon she knew, 'Nibi...' However those demons tended to be rather promiscuous often know as mate thieves and would cheat on their spouses.

Kyuubi sighed tired of her train of thought, she leaned back rather roughly. Her head banging rather hard against a wooden post that helped hold up the tarp that covered the wagon. It was loud enough to attract the attention of the shinobi in the wagon, which she held up a hand to and motioned she was fine. She barely even felt the hit actually, it was likely due to the fact any injury she sustain was usually healed instantly.

She had no desire to spark up a conversation with the black haired girl, or join in on the small talk between the two-team leaders. So she did the only thing left that she could do, sleep. Damn humans were boring...

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Naruto sighed as he was the second last to hop out of the cart. Kyuubi had followed him shortly after. Naruto was about to go get something he had been missing in his life as of late, ramen. That was until Kakashi decided to shit on his parade.

"Naruto you do realize that when I made you mission leader, you would have to go turn in a mission report as the first thing you do. You also will have to address why Haku and Konan are here as well. So come on everyone, we have to go see the Hokage, regardless of whatever you may want to do right now."

Naruto looked down, like someone told him his goldfish died. He slowly began walking before he paused his walk and turned to Kyuubi with a scowl. He shot her a glare that clearly said, 'You better not fuck up my first mission report.'

Kyuubi only smiled innocently in return. Or at least as innocently as a demon who had killed countless humans before could.

Naruto sighed, they were approaching on the Hokage office soon, that was until he felt Ino tug on his arm. Part of him wanted to ignore her, and for her to think that he was going to throw her in the line of fire the entire meeting. However if he did that she may start to squirm, and that would only make it easier to find out that he was hiding something. Worse then that, lying on his mission report now about several things.

"Hey everyone, me and Ino need to talk about something for a bit, can you all go on ahead and we will catch up." Naruto caught both Kakashi and Asuma make a sideways glance at each other, which caused Naruto to frown. So he did the best thing he could think of, despite it being one of the least likely things to happen in this type of weather. He made it rain.

It turned out to be a good thing to do, even if it surprised many of the civilians walking around. Especially the ones that were wearing short skirts. He spotted Kakashi's presence just in ear shot of the conversation, however he wouldn't be able to hear a thing since the rain pounding on the metal overhang of a fruit stand. It sounded like someone was raining down pebbles on the roof constantly. All they had to do was whisper, and he wouldn't be able to hear a thing.  
_  
"What is it you want Ino?"_ Naruto whispered as he pulled her closer to him by the waist. It didn't exactly look appropriate, especially for it being two teens in front of a public fruit stand. Whenever they would whisper, to get past the noise it would appear that one of them was nibbling on the other's ear.

Ino shifted uncomfortably on her feet, _"Are you going to rat me out?" _Naruto scowled slightly at that, straight to the point? She hadn't said a word to him in days.

_"I should... However I'm not going to." _Ino looked surprised at that, she was expecting to go into this conversation and offering everything she had to Naruto just to get him to not go through with putting her name down on the mission report for Kyuubi and what not. However it brought about other questions.

_"Wait... so then... your going to lie on your mission report?" _Ino now felt bad about this. Lying on a mission report is considered treason. A shinobi can't become Hokage with any written record of treason on their profile.

_"Are you sure?" _she frowned when she asked this. She screwed up, she deserved punishment even if she didn't want it. Trying to get out of it at the cost of someone else's dreams was not something she was too fond of.

Naruto shrugged, _"No Ino, I'm not sure about it. However considering that they will likely put you in jail for the remainder of your life... I don't have a choice now do I?"_

Ino stayed silent at that and held her head down. She felt like she stabbed Naruto in the back when she continually flirted with Sasuke despite... what they did together. Now here he was putting his future as a shinobi on the line for her.

Naruto ran a hand through his hair, and groaned _"I wont even both to get into the prettier bits of me getting caught with treason... Ino, I am saving your ass right now. I can throw you in the line of fire however whenever I want. You will be telling me why you did something so fucking stupid!" _Naruto wasn't even bothering to whisper anymore. Ino looked ready to start giving a long explanation but Naruto held up a hand and said quietly once again, "_Later..."_

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Naruto held several papers in his hand, as he and Ino both walked into the Hokage's office where several shinobi were lined up. He walked straight to the Hokage's desk and whispered quietly, "Hey old man." before falling back to his team, standing in front of all of them as a leader would.

Sarutobi looked over the papers quickly, looking over mission reports nearly his entire life made him get rather quick at doing it. Especially when it came to finding reoccurring themes in the reports. The Hokage took a drag of his pipe and looked over the assembled teams before him, and two additional shinobi off to the side.

"So let me get this straight, despite you encountering shinobi on the mission you pressed on? Kakashi, why did you choose to do this." Kakashi rubbed the back of his head and gave a weak smile.

"Well... it appeared that if we weren't going to go on the mission, then Naruto would carry on with the bridge builder regardless." Kakashi said that with caution, that could easily warrant him getting a demotion or Naruto going back to the academy.

"Well if that is the case, then why did you choose to promote Naruto to leader of the mission as you carried on?" Sarutobi asked with a raised eyebrow, from what he had read of the mission report. It was not something he was pleased with. Their actions were irresponsible regardless of the fact that the mission turned into probably one of the most beneficial rewards Konoha had ever received from a mission in the past 10 years.

Kakashi flinched, the man before them wasn't being openly hostile. However, the displeasure was written all over his face. The man before them held the seat of Hokage, and strongest shinobi in Konoha for a reason. "I chose to make Naruto leader of the mission because he was able to pull everyone together, and keep the morale of the group up despite the damage that had been done during previous encounters. He appears to have the qualities of a born leader."

Kakashi was being honest, but at the same time trying to word what he was saying in the best way possible to get himself and Naruto off the hook.

Sarutobi sighed, 'Okay, he had a point there. The boy did pull everyone together but...' "Well perhaps I should make Naruto the jounin, and you the genin Kakashi. From what I have read, Naruto seems to have become on good terms with a young kunoichi with a bloodline, who happened to save you student. He fought against the mist's demon brothers, two well respected chunin and was able to land the killing blow on both of them. He survived a battle with Warren Peace, and was able to return the Land of Waves their funds. Now tell me, why is it that he appears to have done the majority of the work?"

Kakashi normally would have scowled. When a mission report turned out sounding like that, it was normally because the person who wrote the report was a glory hound. However, it really sucked when two entire teams of shinobi were upstaged by a single genin, who held the title of dead last of the academy. "As I said sir, Uzumaki stepped it up on the mission. I was out of commission after my battle with Zabuza, and Naruto was able to take over and keep everyone together."

Sarutobi waved his hand dismissively, "Fine..." however Kakashi had been in enough after mission meetings with the Hokage to know that dismissive hand wave just meant that 'I will get back to you later.'

Sarutobi turned to Naruto, "So Naruto..." his gaze softened a bit. The boy was a spitting image of his father growing up minus the whiskers. "Why is it that you chose to carry on with the mission?"

Naruto knew deep down why he continued on the mission was foolish, and stupid. However, he wasn't going to openly say why he went on the mission if he could work around it. "His country was in poverty."

Sarutobi paused, "You went on the mission because his country was in poverty?" Sarutobi stared at Naruto and a frown came onto his face.

"Naruto, why would you do something like that? You put yourself and your entire team at risk." Sarutobi said, he was disappointed with Naruto in that regard. However the jab Naruto took back at him couldn't help but make him feel disappointed in himself.

"Yes well, I grew up in poverty all my life Hokage-sama. I couldn't help but feel _emotionally compromised_ and felt entitled to helping them. My team didn't have to follow me." Naruto said, making sure to pull out a line from the shinobi rules and laws.

Sarutobi paused, the boy had thrown his upbringing back in his own face. Sarutobi decided against addressing something such as that right now. That is something that only needed to be talked about between the two of them. The others in the room didn't need to know.

Everyone could feel the tension in the room rise when Naruto said that, some more interested then others. However what they did know was they were in for an interesting story. Naruto was away from the group the majority of the time, he likely knew a lot more about the situation then anyone else. So they all stood and listened as Naruto explained in full detail what happened in wave.

Save a couple edited parts, specifically being Kyuubi and the bit about them stealing enough money to make him one of the richest people in Konoha.

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The teams soon left the Hokage's office. He had given them pay for an S-rank mission, and personally placed it on all of their mission records. Naruto being a special case, and they put him down for leading an S-rank mission.

It was a surprise to everyone in the room that their mission was an S-rank mission. However once the Hokage explained how he felt that the mission was at least an S-rank mission. It was one that could be publicly known, but still and S-rank mission. The encounter of A-rank missing ninja Momochi Zabuza, as well as The C-rank Demon brothers and the unranked jounin level shinobi Haku was part of it. Then the encounter of Peace, an S-rank missing ninja from the Mist was a 2nd part in the ranking.

The rank of Peace surprised most of the shinobi in the room save Kakashi and Asuma. The two of them more often then not looked at the bingo book. The third part however was the main thing that promoted the S-rank. They ended up bringing a country out of poverty, and ended up making near unbreakable beneficial bond between a port town that formerly thrived, and has one of the best trading industries in the world, besides Iwa's which Konoha doesn't have access to.

The Hokage also gave the teams expressed permission to take the chunin exams. They didn't have the amount of missions taken, and the chunin exams were rolling up on them in nearly a week's time. However judging from the performance of the teams on the mission, it wasn't a surprise the Hokage personally requested that they compete.

Naruto was about to leave the room with his team, and Kyuubi and Haku following before the Hokage called out to him. "Naruto I'm afraid you can't leave yet. I assume you want the shinobi you brought with you to be able to establish residence in Konoha correct?"

Naruto paused and turned around, "Yeah that is correct..." he said as he tilted his head.

The Hokage stood up with a light cough, "Alright follow me, we are going to go interrupt a council meeting." the smirk on Sarutobi's face told Naruto that that was not something they should be doing. However... it would have been too good to pass up. He followed suit, this would be his first time in front of the shinobi council. Hopefully, not the last either.

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Alright there you have it another chapter. I originally wasn't going to write one today because it is Halloween. However I feel like I would be cheating myself, and not "Going for burnout" properly lol.

So I wrote this rather quickly(a little over 45mins :( ) am I happy with it? It is alright, I don't know if it is "The best" however I feel it set things up for you to get a feel of where Haku and Kyuubi will be come later chapters. Next chapter I also hope to reveal the two characters that will be appearing in the chunin exams.

I have hinted at a couple things this chapter in Kyuubi's bit. I don't know if I plan to follow through or not on one of them. Time will tell.

I hinted at Naruto using ice jutsu to fight last chapter. I changed my mine, you saw as such above.

Why did I change my mind? Meh... I started playing Tekken 6... and that can do wonders for the "Screwing up of any fighting style you have planned."

Stuck between keeping him with the Brawler feel that Naruto usually has, or a more deadly feel that(If you want the example I am pulling from in Tekken, it's Lars and Miguel)

Both are interesting in their own right, even if you go check out who those characters are and everyone screams "OH PICK LARS!" because... his style is ridiculously awesome -.-'... I admit that much.

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Anyways, haven't had as long of ANs lately, don't plan to make this one either.

x

Kyuubi: You get more insight how she feels about human life, and her current body. You get a bit of a look at trying to comprehend exactly how strong she is, which I will lay down a hard fact for this story atm. She is the strongest thing we know in the Narutoverse as of now(save 10tails).

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Ino: I contemplated getting into the conversation this chapter... but I really didn't want to write a lot on Halloween, so the conversation will be going in where I originally intended. "Soon"

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Haku: No talking from her this chapter, not many people talked actually. However, next chapter I do plan to expand on her.

**If anyone can think of a way that Haku could live in Konoha, I am all years because as of right now in the story. She can't, post a suggestion if you want me to PM you as to why. Then you can give me any suggestions as to how she could live in Konoha.**

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Anyways I don't plan to do this again, however here is a single line that will be in the chapter.

Council addressing Haku:

"We, the shinobi council of Konoha are afraid we must deny your request of residence Haku. We collectively feel that one right does not make up for a life time of wrongs."

cookies if you know where that is from lol...

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As for Haku, currently contemplating:

Hotels

not becoming a resident, but instead staying as Naruto house.

or not staying at all.

However as I said, I'm all ears.

x

Anyways read and review.


	15. Where'd You go? I Miss You So

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

I also usually don't post notes at the top of chapters, but please stick with me on this. I know nearly everyone wanted Haku to stick around Konoha for awhile. Her leaving was never planned to be long term at all, she would be back before the exams, or you would at least see her before the end of the exams. However I needed to free Naruto's time table for the expansion on Ino, Sasuke, and a hidden character.

xxx

"My apologies everyone, but it appears a more important matter has come up that I must take over this meeting." Sarutobi said as he walked into the council room followed by Naruto, Haku and the possessed Konan.

The council seemed rather startled at the Hokage's presence. "Sir we were just going over our current relations with other villages and countries." spoke a random council member.

Sarutobi sat behind his desk in the council room, and put his hat on the desk. "I understand, while important, it is not more important than the current situation. This meeting I am interrupting is concerning the possibility of a new bloodline joining out ranks in Konoha." Sarutobi said loudly in a commanding voice that echoed through the council room. Whispers broke out throughout the council, all surprised with the situation, this was a rarity.

"As such, I cannot have the civilian council putting input in on shinobi affairs. You are free to stay and listen, however a comment from one on the civilian council on this matter will result in you being escorted from the room, and suspended from council duties as well as a fine." Sarutobi spoke, with no room for discussion on the matter in his voice.

"What is the fine Hokage-sama?" asked one of the members of the civilian council questioningly with narrowed eyes.

Sarutobi lighting his pipe spoke out, not bothering to look at the person to address him specifically. "If you are that stupid to need to know what a fine is for not keeping you mouth shut in a place you are not supposed to talk, I mine as well make the fine death." he looked up from lighting his pipe and raised an eyebrow. "Any questions?"

There was silence throughout the council room. This was no longer the leader that would input various ideas about the village being run, and let the councils talk amongst themselves to reach a majority decision. This was now the leader that the village loved, and feared. The leader that they would follow into battle without question.

"Good..." Sarutobi said as he exhaled some smoke from his pipe.

Naruto was surprised as he watched the old man, the way he instantly commanded the shinobi on the council. The silence in the room, everyone waiting patiently to be addressed. Some civilians leaving the room, fine with the idea of going home to their families early.

Haku had since moved behind Naruto, at which point she was promptly pulled forward to his side by Naruto himself. He quietly whispered into her ear, "Come on Haku, now is not the time to seemingly lack confidence."

Naruto couldn't hide his annoyance when he saw a woman that looked like the mother of his classmate Kiba smirk when he had said that. He gave her a light sneer, he didn't like Kiba that much. He was his friend one minute, and his bully the next. At least when it came to people like Sasuke or Ino prior to their bet, they weren't going to be two faced about the situation concerning himself. At least they openly disliked him.

Naruto looked over his shoulder only to see Kyuubi scratching paint off of her fingernails while she seemed focused on toying with the piercing in her mouth. She leaned against the wall, not for a second caring if the council saw her posture, and attitude.

Naruto scowled, while the Hokage was doing a roll call of all the shinobi of the shinobi council being present Naruto walked over to Kyuubi. "What the hell are you doing?" he accused as quiet as he possibly could.

Kyuubi raised an eyebrow and stopped sucking on the lip ring, "I have no reason to honestly participate in your foolish human affairs. Honestly who does roll call of a council meeting that was already in session?"

She had a point, but he would never openly tell her that. "Shut up, people in here can hear you when you are talking _Konan_, especially the woman with markings on her face." he said with a scowl.

Kyuubi looked up and raised an eyebrow. Sure enough the woman was staring at her intently with narrowed eyes. The human comment must have gotten to her. Kyuubi scrunched her nose, "She stinks of dog." she said voice full of distaste.

Kyuubi said it on purpose, just for fun. However it had the desired effect on the woman. She glared at her and clenched her fists, while calling out "Here." when it came to her name on the list.

Naruto grit his teeth, "Look, if you are just going to reflect badly on me, then please leave. You already reflect badly on me period." He turned around quickly and walked back to where Haku was. It was rather intimidating standing in front of the council, but he had people judge him all of his life. Why would he let it get to him now?

Haku on the other hand was surprisingly nervous. He didn't know much about her past so he couldn't pinpoint exactly why she was so nervous. However... perhaps that was something he could talk to her about when all of this is blown over and she has an apartment in Konoha.

Naruto turned around to see if Kyuubi had even bothered to at least straighten up, and to his surprise. She had, well actually she left. However it was one of the things he asked of her, and he was thankful of that. He would have to remind himself to thank her later.

"Alright, lets have this meeting begin." spoke Sarutobi calmly as he relaxed a bit, finally able to enjoy his pipe. He hated doing roll call.

"I have called you here because these." he paused and looked around for the second woman. Upon seeing Naruto looking at him shaking his head he sighed. "This shinobi standing before you, has the ability to manipulate water and wind to create ice elemental techniques."

Whispers broke out once again, this time mainly through the civilian council while the shinobi council merely observed. Sarutobi knew that the shinobi council was likely to whisper, but as long as there were no outbursts than he was fine.

The catching whisper that broke out was, _"Is she the second coming of the Nidaime?"_

Inuzuka Tsume, head of the Inuzuka clan frowned as she looked from Naruto to the Hokage. "That is interesting indeed Hokage-sama, but that doesn't explain why Uzumaki Naruto must be present for this."

The Hokage sighed and let smoke come out of his nose. "Actually, Naruto apparently has everything to do with Haku. He was the one that turned her from enemy to a friend on his mission. Of course, there is something that we must address before we can give the go ahead with Haku and her having residency here."

There was a deafening silence as the old kage continued, "She is the former apprentice of Momochi Zabuza." Sarutobi said slowly as he examined the reaction from the people in the room.

There was some surprise that went throughout the council room. The most likely reaction was, 'The butcher had a young girl as his apprentice?'

Naruto squeezed Haku's hand reassuringly. It was the silent way for him to tell her that everything will be alright. It was the best he could do in this situation.

"Would it be possible for us to get a bingo book, and a profile on Zabuza?" asked the pineapple haired shinobi who had a calculating expression on his face.

Sarutobi nodded his head with his eyes closed and waved one of his hands as if he was ushering an invisible force out of the door.

"So Haku are you a missing ninja? Answer these questions truthfully, we will have a bingo book here shortly." asked a white eyed male as he turned his head to Haku's direction.

Naruto pat her back gently and took a step back giving Haku the attention, which she didn't particularly enjoy. However the quicker she could get out of here the better. "All things considered, I shouldn't be registered as a missing ninja. That being said, I don't know if I am listed in the bingo book."

An Anbu appeared in the room and dropped the requested documents on the Hokage's desk, which he began browsing through while Haku answered questions.

The white eyed male continued, "I assume you are aware that Konoha isn't a village that accepts missing ninja to join their ranks correct?"

Haku could have made a comment on how she thought about that, but she opted to just nod instead. No need to paint herself a bigger target.

The Hyuuga clan head turned to Sarutobi for clarification on the or any questions that should be asked. The Hokage shook his head gently, and turned the paper on his desk to face the Hyuuga.

Veins appeared on the sides of the head of the man questioning Haku, "So it appears that your former sensei, Zabuza... he has a rather large record. From theft to attempted assassination of a village kage. However, those were common facts. The question is how much you participated."

Naruto looked to Haku, that was a good question. He never asked Haku how much she had been working with Zabuza. To be honest, he actually didn't know much about Haku at all. It made him a bit frustrated at that thought, he essentially slept with a stranger. That wasn't good.

Haku kept her calm composure, "Given your record with the Mist, and who you learned under you do realize it isn't in our best interests to allow you residence here correct? While you may not be a registered shinobi, you still assisted in the crimes of an S-rank criminal of the Hidden Mist, and an A-rank of Konoha. You also appeared to have once attacked Uzumaki Naruto on his most recent mission." The white eyes weren't looked at Haku anymore, yet his head was still turned her way.

Naruto opened his mouth, "Ah that isn't real-"

The white eyed man paused and said, "Uzumaki please remember not to respond why I am giving retorical statements and questions."

Naruto grit his teeth, he didn't like that man. He had a larger stick up his ass then Sasuke. When he became Hokage, he was most definitely going to have him removed.

Haku squeezed Naruto's hand roughly. She hated the fact that she just came in here to get picked apart by some man based on records of a nation that wasn't even trying to look for her. She hid a scowl that was slowly coming to her face, and tried her best to mask it with a fake smile.

"From what we have here Haku, or shall I say Momochi-san since that was who raised you. It wouldn't be in our best interests to allow you to stay here Haku. You must agree that despite your actions on this most recent mission alongside Uzumaki-san that one right does not make up for a life time of wrongs. Most particularly being treason and the aiding of a criminal planning to attempt to overthrow the Mizukage once again. Perhaps we can reconsider with the backing of a shinobi clan, and if you can sway one of them to your views. However I do believe that it is highly doubtful with this current record." Naruto grit his teeth as he listened to the Hyuuga speak about Haku in such a way. It was frustrating to say the least, but what could he do? Who did he know that had a shinobi clan that would even be willing to help him with this current matter?

That was when it hit him, he had just the person. "Is there a way for you all to bring Uchiha Sasuke here?" Naruto asked hopefully. The council room was surprised, particularly the white eyed shinobi. He had not expected this boy to think of using something like his teammate, especially so soon.

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It took awhile, but they had eventually informed the Uchiha of the situation. It was a bit weird for all of the adults in the room to look at this twelve year old child with next to no field experience as a shinobi as head of a clan.

"So Sasuke what will it be? Will you support the integration of Haku and her ice elemental bloodline into Konoha?" The last Uchiha frowned as he looked over to his teammate. He was also the closest thing he had to a friend, as lame as that sounded since they barely talked.

"Where will she be staying if I choose to support her integrating into Konoha." in truth it should have been a no brainer when he was asked this question. If he was a true friend, he would have given his support without second thought.

However there was a problem, with him and Naruto personally. He found it frustrating that Naruto was his best friend and likely his only friend and yet he resembled his brother on several occasions.

"She will either move into the Uchiha complex, unless she has sufficient funds to support herself." called out another council member.

Sasuke pursed his lips, here he was looking at someone he had always looked down upon. Someone he had always thought to be below him, not worth his time. Why is it that he was getting something that he so desperately wanted?

Sasuke turned away from Naruto, "No, I'm afraid if we actually searched her, we know she doesn't have any money. I wouldn't allow anyone to stay in the houses of my former family members either."

Sasuke walked out the door on that note. He didn't dare look back at Naruto's face due to what he had done for him as of recently. He technically owed him, but it pissed him off the thought of Naruto finally having someone that was always going to be there for him.

It was true, he wouldn't let someone live in the houses of his family members. Sure it was being a bit stingy when he thought about it. However he couldn't help it, it was hard enough walking around his own house knowing that his parents had been brutally murdered inside of it. Walking into his next door neighbors knowing full and well that something happened to other family members of him. That was his problem, he was obligated to check in on Haku if he supported her. At least... that is what he kept telling himself his problem was with the situation.

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Naruto grit his teeth as he watched his friend walk away and turn his back on him. He squeezed Haku's hand, however it was no longer reassuringly, it was in anger. His eyes narrowed dangerously, and he turned to the council and spoke in a low voice, "Thank you for you consideration."

Once he said that he nearly darted out of the room with Haku in hand being dragged along. She was a bit disappointed she couldn't legally stay here, but she didn't see what the huge problem was. It wasn't like her not staying here was such a bad thing. She could go out and gather information or develop a spy network or something. It seemed as if Naruto thought she was a useless tool if she wasn't near by. She would show him that was most definitely not the case.

Haku was so wrapped up in her thoughts that once she was about to say something to Naruto, she felt his hand leave her grip. She snapped out of her thinking trance just in time to see Naruto give Sasuke a vicious right hook and Sasuke was none the wiser of it coming. Sasuke stumbled, and tumbled over the railing of the walk way, and fell a good ten feet onto a building roof below. Sasuke was lucky for ninja reflexes and that he was able to land in a crouch, otherwise that fall would have hurt.

However it didn't help him, Naruto came at him from above with a punch downwards. He could only be happy with the fact that he was still faster then Naruto. Naruto dropped down with a punch which split several tiles on the roof of the building.

Sasuke fell into a loose fighting stance and frowned 'This is my best friend?' he thought with a frown on his face.

Haku dropped down behind Naruto, wanting to stay close in case she needed to stop this fight amongst the two of them with physical force. However for now, she thought that Naruto needed to blow off steam, and if Sasuke got smacked around in the process it was fine by her.

"What the fuck is your problem!" Naruto yelled at Sasuke as he got up and charged at him with, regrettably slow speeds for a shinobi. In live combat Naruto was impressive, barely needing to think about what his next action will be. However when it came to fighting in a controlled environment and he wasn't going for a kill. His speed was pathetic.

Naruto launched a punch forward, which Sasuke tilted his head to the side. However he didn't expect Naruto to come forward with a knee right after that.

His fighting was pathetic, but surprising.

Naruto grit his teeth as Sasuke fell to the ground stunned with the wind knocked out of him. Naruto, with the level of skill of a brawler who appeared to have no formal training, and learned to fight on the streets gave Sasuke a vicious slugger to the face. He was hit so hard when he was crouched down that his head bounced off the roof of the building.

"What do you mean is my problem!" Sasuke coughed out, wiping blood from his mouth. "What the hell is yours?"

Naruto's glare hardened as he grabbed a hold of Sasuke's shirt, "My problem? You should know what my problem is! I fucking saved your damn life and you wont take Haku in for a week before I can get paid to provide for her myself." That was actually a lie, he could provide for her right now. Hell Haku could provide for her herself if they evenly split the money. If only they could have told Sasuke that, maybe things would have been different.

"Naruto you wouldn't be able to provide for both of you guys for more than a month on just an S-rank mission." Sasuke said condescendingly.

Naruto grit his teeth at that and yelled, "Then I would have done more missions!" It pissed him off that here he was, likely his closest male friend he had. Yet he was trying to insinuate that it was his fault he didn't take Haku in for a week. "You are the fucking richest person in Konoha, and you couldn't take her in for a week? That is pathetic! You, no not just you, my entire team owes me their lives! Yet here you are, I'm asking one thing of you and you stab me in the back and turn your back on me?"

Naruto held Sasuke to the ground now, contemplating choking the Uchiha. Sasuke coughed and slapped at Naruto's hand, "Get the hell off of me, the only reason we even continued the mission was because you wouldn't listen to Kakashi and turn back."

Naruto gave a fake laugh, "You didn't have to follow, you chose to. You all could have left me to do it on my own."

Sasuke rolled his eyes, "Oh really Naruto. Haven't both you and Kakashi said those who break the rules are trash, but those who abandon their comrades are worse then that? What the hell did you expect me to do."

Naruto rolled his eyes, "Oh shut the hell up, you and I both know we hated each other until I saved your ass during your battle with the demon brother."

Sasuke smirked when Naruto said that, 'thats for sure.'

Naruto was about to throw Sasuke a punch when he suddenly felt Haku's hand grasp over his fist. "Why didn't you bother to ask me about this fucking situation you idiot! I have money to pay for Haku." Naruto yelled as he tried his best to knee Sasuke in the ribs with Haku holding his hand.

Sasuke was actually a bit surprised by that, he thought Naruto was nearly dead broke. Yet he looked like he was telling the truth. Sasuke then suddenly felt guilty. He let his own personal jealousy and lonliness in contrast to Naruto and his soon to be happiness get in the way and cloud his judgement. He was jealous that Naruto was suddenly going to get something he craved. Sure he got attention, and people cared about him, but they never really stopped to just talk to him. They either were infatuated with him, and fawned over him. Or they were indifferent to him and didn't bother to get to know him. Both were frustrating, and he however much he didn't want to admit it. He knew he was socially retarded when it came to some situations.

"I'm sorry..." he said quietly, words Sasuke never thought he would hear himself say. "I assumed that you didn't have enough money to pay for both of you guys judging from your belongings."

Naruto flinched at the stab at his wears. It was true up until recently he was dead broke, and by public standards he was still dead broke. He would just need to make it seem like Haku went to Zabuza's hideout or something and got money. Naruto chose to not suddenly turn soft and just stood up, letting go of Sasuke and let Haku gently pull himself backwards. Naruto grit his teeth, "Didn't you mother ever tell you about fucking assumptions Sasuke!" he yelled. The three of them knew that the people on the streets below likely heard him.

Haku pulled Naruto away with a shunshin, he was getting a bit out of control with this entire situation. He just needed time to cool off.

Sasuke on the other hand stood up and dusted off with a sigh as he heard his mothers voice in his head for the first time in a long time.

_Sasuke, never assume things in the ninja world. Assumptions only make an ass of you and me."_

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Naruto sighed as he appeared in a training ground alongside Haku. He didn't want to talk about Sasuke, or address the situation at all with her leaving. Yet Haku beat him to it.

"Naruto-sama... don't worry about me leaving. If you don't want me to be far away I wont. However I have been trained, I can take care of myself. I can go out and invest part of this money, or try and establish a decent spy network, or whatever you wish." Haku said almost like a servant.

Naruto sighed and ran a hand through his hair, "Enough with the Naruto-sama crap Haku. That is bedroom talk only." he said trying to lighten the mood. Judging by the red tint that came to Haku's face it did.

Naruto walked over and hugged Haku. It was a rather random move, which surprised Haku. She just hugged back, she hadn't really received hugs in her life. Frankly, neither had Naruto. So the situation was a bit strange, however it was the thought that counted. Naruto whispered in her ear, "This is so stupid, you shouldn't have to leave."

Haku shrugged, "Naruto it isn't that bad, like I said. I can do a number of things outside the village while you are stuck here. Is there anything you have in mind?" she asked curiously, like a tool ready to serve.

Naruto massaged his own shoulder with his hand, "I guess just develop a spy network. They always said a ninja could never be too informed. At least that is what they said in the academy. I guess I also want you to just become stronger, but please. Check in with me every two weeks Haku, so that I know you are alright."

Haku nodded as she tilted her head with a smile on her face. She then suddenly stopped, "Before I go didn't you say that you may figure out a way for me to be able to teach you ice techniques?" She asked as she began walking with Naruto deeper into the training ground.

Naruto frowned at that, "Yeah well I thought that would be great but, I thought about it a bit. I decided against it. That is you, I want to develop myself as my own shinobi, not a mirror image of you skill wise."

Haku felt a bit disappointed that he chose not to pick up her trade, but she also knew it was for the best. If an enemy ever came after both of them at once, it would be better to have two styles fast different so at least if the opponent has a jutsu that can counter one of them. He likely doesn't have a way to counter the other.

Naruto stretched and knelt down by the lake where he first had his moment with Ino. It was a bit awkward being here with Haku, but thats life. "So what do you think I should work on?"

Haku raised an eyebrow, "Well I was always working on my affinities while training, what are your affinities?"

Naruto shrugged, "All of them." Haku went bug eyed for a second, and would have started to laugh if Naruto didn't say that while being completely serious.

Haku still trying to regain control of her speech took a deep breath and said, "Well... your speed is atrocious, I think if you really can learn to manipulate any element. I would suggest that you use lightning. You can use that to enhance your movements and speed, and your sensei is supposedly a shinobi with a lightning affinity."

Naruto flinched, "Really Haku? Atrocious."

The said female shinobi stepped out onto the water with a grin, it appeared that despite her upbringing she still had a bit of a kid left in her. "Well I'll tell you what, if you catch me, we can have a repeat of what happened in Wave." Once she said that she began darting off across the water laughing.

Naruto took a second to register what exactly what she meant before a grin burst forth onto his face.

_Needless to say with the proper motivation, Naruto was able to catch her._

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Nearly slipped up today with the daily updates. Jeez I feel lame.

Anyways as I said at the top, I know some people may hate me for sending Haku away. From what I gathered she was beginning to become one of the favorite characters in here, even if her torture methods made some male readers cringe.

However as I said at the top it was necessary for three more characters to grow their wings(possibly 6-7 actually...) Over the course of the exam.

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I said I was trying to make Sasuke more likable and I am. A lot of you will likely say, if you wanted him to be more likable this was not something you should have done. In part I agree, but It has strained Naruto and Sasuke's relationship. Both of them are strong shinobi in their own right. In the manga Sasuke is far more defensive while Naruto is far more offensive. So they make a interesting couple(no not yaoi) when it comes to fighting.

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Some of you may feel that the council room scene was a bit crappy. I sort of feel that way when I look back on it. I really wish I wasn't so against taking what I feel is the easy way out with the Haku situation, which is usually many of the ideas you listed.

1:Marry Naruto

2: Slave of Uzumaki clan

3: Stay because of her bloodline

4:Be allowed to become a shinobi under watch of the village.

etc

They have all been done before. I have yet to see a story where Naruto and Haku grow close, and suddenly are forced to part for awhile. While I didn't entirely want to get rid of Haku, it needed to be done because otherwise I felt the story wouldn't feel completely right. Haku would be in nearly every scene with Naruto because she works for him by all means. I couldn't have her standing around if I wanted to develop Naruto and Ino's relationship or whatever.

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Next chapter I hope to have Naruto developing his fighting style. Possibly meeting the two surprise people for the chunin exams.

**In the review post ways that you can think of Naruto enhancing his speed quickly and efficiantly.**

**Dont post:**

**Chakra enhancing your limbs(if you can think a manipulation of chakra for example, chakra on the soles of your feet so you slide on the ground then fine.)**

**Weights, far too over done. For someone who has tried walking around with an extra 45 pounds on your body in weights at all times, it is rediculously hard. Don't suggest it, it is stupid. I know from life experience. Lee is officially a beast for doing such a thing like that.  
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**Gravity seals: Again don't suggest it, same thing just as overdone as weights. Also just as annoying when people write Naruto in the chunin exams about to fight Neji and suddenly exploding with power because he release a seal.**

**Wind resistence seal: Again don't do it or suggest it. I have seen it before once in a good story, then several times after that in bad stories.  
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**x**

**Keep in mind that Naruto will be training the lightning affinity only. So again don't suggest wind propelling him or what not. Yes lightning chakra will already be assisting his movements. However I do want to show him actually working physically to get faster.**

**I currently only have one idea right now and that is him training in water, water resistence. Something that is plausible and doesn't require some enhanced seal or whatever is what I am looking for.  
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I hope you all enjoyed the chapter, read and review.


	16. The Breakdown

Disclaimer:I don't own Naruto.

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Naruto sighed as he stood in a stream and adjusted a ring on his right middle finger that had the kanji for White on it all the while rain splashed in his face. What type of favor was this? He had earlier gone to Kyuubi for help. He didn't want to but he also felt that there would be no other choice. He could have gone to Kakashi, but he would have been sure to ask questions as to why he was trying to train his affinity. In truth, this entire training was an extreme long shot.

He up until a few days ago had no idea how to manipulate lightning chakra. It had been a week since Haku had left, which was to be honest very disappointing. He told her to set up and spy network and grow stronger. However, if she was going to improve than he would have to improve twice as much. So here he was now.

He had found a stream that came from who knows where. Sure, he knew it wasn't probably the best idea of training in a stream he had no idea where the source of water came from. It could be full of chemicals, however it was the only way he could think of training. Unless he wanted to be up to his head in debts he owed Kyuubi. So here he was, he had been spending the first few days of his training just working on his speed the only way he knew how. Resistance...

Alright that maybe wasn't the complete truth. There were other ways such as certain seals and weights. However he didn't want to go through the trouble of arguing with an owner and paying some large amount for weights that he probably would be using for three weeks.

He found a stream, it didn't move that quickly down at the bottom. However it was deep, It was easily up to his shoulders, or sometimes his elbows in the water. He had taken to running up the stream as fast as possible, it was about a mile sprint. However he was a ninja, he could push through it. If his speed was horrible, he would do everything he could to work on it. The best thing about it however in his opinion, was it was fun. The stream wasn't a rocky bottom like the lake at the training grounds, or the lake in Wave. No this stream bottom was just muddy, virtually rock-less besides a few pebbles that went down the stream.

Once he got to the top, which was pretty much a giant gated area near the outskirts of Konoha, training ground 44 he could flop on his back and relax a bit and drift down the stream, which took 6-7 minutes or so.

What he had recently been doing was in the forests on the way down, closer to Konoha's outskirts he had littered them with clones. The clones were practicing what they could with lightning manipulation. It was a bit of a slower progress with the rain, however no one went out searching the woods on a rainy day. So weighing his options of being caught as a genin doing advanced chakra manipulation, or slightly slower progress. He chose the later.

He was surprised he wasn't getting tired, he had always thought that Kyuubi provided him with the chakra and stamina. However it would likely be a question left unanswered until Kyuubi stopped charging him favors whenever he asked her a question.

He would disperse the shadow clones around every two sprints up through the water. Over the past few days he had grown fairly confident in his abilities to manipulate lightning chakra. His clones had found various ways to use it, and various ways... not to use it. Some of them even made him feel embarrassed. The shadow clones are supposed to be a copy of him, did their actions really mean he was stupid enough to try some of the things they do?

There was a bonus however to training how to use his lightning affinity in the rain. It meant he lightly wouldn't have trouble if someone suddenly decided to douse him with water by surprise. It also meant that a majority of the clones were learning to shock things several feet away across puddles. How he found that one out however made him scowl. A clone thought it would be funny to zap another clone from afar. Sure enough "Poof" the clone went, and the memories came back to him. He knew it wouldn't mean much, but he saw to it that the clone that did something so stupid... yet genius like that was smacked on top of the head. It didn't matter if he did one right, a hundred rights can be overshadowed by a single wrong. In this particular circumstance, it was a single right that everyone else was doing that he felt the need to interrupt. That was why he was hit.

Naruto hadn't really been getting tired. The six to seven minute breaks he was able to take between the sprints had kept him at a decent level of calm. He had been able to do this all day every day. His time had constantly been going up. To the point it nearly took him as long to get up the stream as it took to get down. That to him was impressive seeing as how the stream got harder to move through as you got closer to the top, and the slope increased.

He had another set of clones that had a far more interesting job than "Sit down and learn to control lightning chakra." These clones were supposed to develop a fighting style. This group was nearly as large as the manipulation group, however was dispelled twice as less. Although two clones from this group would be dispelled every time he got to the bottom of the stream. He would think over what he wanted to see implemented into this fighting style he was creating and what he didn't want to see implemented. Then he would carry on and summon two new clones that would tell the group working on the fighting style what he wanted to have done.

He wanted his style to be fast, dangerous and powerful. He wanted it to be the ultimate offense. Through utilizing the ultimate offense, he would then gain the ultimate defense through his opponent always trying to protect themselves.

It however was an obvious gamble and there were several flaws in this fighting style. In theory it sounded amazing, and you would be incredibly surprised that no one had chosen to create such a style. However, a fighting style is only as good as it's wielder. He needed perfection, and that could be years. That was why he had clones doing this while he trained his body to keep up. If he couldn't get the style down to a level that was above acceptable he was suddenly prone.

He was prone to counter attacks, he was prone to multiple enemies, he was prone to many things. Number one being, he doesn't have a defensive stance. Sure, he knew how to parry attacks, but he wouldn't call that a defensive stance. That was more him getting lucky, and being able to continue pressing the offensive.

He closed his eyes and thought over his style sitting on a rock near the bottom of the stream.

First of all he had no idea what he was going to call his style. He knew a few things for a fact. Number one, the style was completely based on avoiding your lack of a defense through the use of your superior offense and keeping the enemy prone. Naruto wasn't a taijutsu expect, but when he thought of prone, he thought of being in mid air. When you are in mid air, you can barely block, and even if you are able to get off some pathetic bastardized version of a block off, it will be weak, and you are more likely to hurt yourself then protecting yourself.

He also considered prone an opponent that was recently hit onto the ground. If an opponent was recently hit onto the ground, they are likely going to bounce a bit before they regain any form of composure and footing. However, giving anyone a way to get back into a fighting stance, or regain composure against a fighting style that doesn't actively practice defense. It was asking for trouble. So he knew if he ever intended to hit someone hard enough that they would fall to the floor, then they would be hit damn hard straight down to his feet, right within his reach. He felt that if they could even roll away or get away, they could recover.

Give a person an inch, they will take a mile when it comes to life and death.

Another notable feature about the style was the use of lightning chakra to make it work. It can't be completely copied due to the sheer physical speed and power needed to be put behind the techniques. On top of that, a key feature if the style is to keep your opponent constantly on the defensive. A good shinobi will control the fight, and eventually break their opponents guard and go for the kill. A great shinobi however will have ways to get past their opponents guard quickly. Naruto didn't want to be a "Good" shinobi. Good shinobi are the shinobi you read off of the stone when they die in the wars. The great shinobi go down in history books. He was going to be a great shinobi.

So in order to get past his opponents defenses quickly, he tried his best to learn how to abuse his lightning affinity. He had made a tiny bit of progress, he hoped that the entire style would come together by the time the chunin exams rolled around. He could only hope at least. He already had it planned to throw his opponent off guard, he would occasionally enhance his strikes with with lightning chakra. It wasn't going to turn into any super powered or high speed punch. He needed to keep his punches consistent. The shock and the spasming of the opponents muscles wherever the attack struck for a moment would be all he needed to stay on the offensive... at least he hoped.

He had been thinking more and more about the style as it progressed and so far he had made a lot of progress. However he hit a hole in his fighting style when he realized that in order to keep up the speed, or to continually knock his opponent in the air, he would need multiple ways to stay close to the opponent and on the opponent at all times. So he invented multiple stances that he could spin into to carry out what he needed to be done. Needless to say, inventing a stance that you can just "Spin into" wasn't easy.

He lost count in the hundreds of times that he had stumbled from falling on his ass to nearly falling face first in the ground. The source of the problem? Foot work. The stance part was easy, you could fall into the stances rather quickly after a flurry of punches. The foot work however...

Naruto was a simple shinobi. He had nearly no training, he knew this, people that knew of him knew this. It was nearly one of the things that was common knowledge when it came to the genin of Konohagakure. Naruto was almost famous... no that actually wouldn't be the proper word. He was notorious. People knew of him, and many didn't like him. Whether it be for the Kyuubi, or his pranks he pulled in the village. He made a mockery of Konoha's ANBU by painting the Hokage monument in broad daylight.

Did that mean he was an excellent ninja excelling in stealth? Or did it mean he was some stupid kid that needed to find a different hobby? I am sure people would have mixed answers. They all just knew he wasn't "properly" trained.

So as a shinobi with no proper training, and fought like a brawler all of his life and got by alright, he was rather impressive. Often times surprising students in the academy, and wrestling them down into a brawl on the ground, which Naruto tended to dominate. Of course his winning streak as a brawler was short lived as the shinobi around him began to advance and improve their fighting styles, he did not. The teachers would say he was unmotivated. He would say that they weren't being proper teachers.

The fact of the matter was, here was a young shinobi who had foot work akin to a street orphan completely self taught, trying to learn... No, not even learn, trying to create a style in which foot work would be a major part of the style. The results were brutal, they were ugly, and they took a good day and a half before he could do it without falling on his ass.

However it paid off, gaining him excellent transitions into different positions to stick to his opponent like glue, while being able to continue his oppressive offense and control the fight against an opponent.

Alright sure, this was all in theory, it hadn't been properly tested against an actual opponent. However, wasn't that what the upcoming exams were for? To test your might? Who was he kidding though? He was Uzumaki Naruto. Even if a plan did not seem like it should work, or didn't appear that it would work. He would make it work.

He split his stances into three groups. The first stance was the simple one. He called it basic, or a better term for it would be the initiating stance. It consisted of his knees being slightly bent, standing sideways toward the opponent. His left arm stretched downward while his right arm was bent closer to his chest in a fist.

His second stance as he liked to call it was the Silent Entry. True to it's name, he could spin around to the right and get into this stance quickly. It was likely the stance that packed the most punching power out of the three. He would slide into this low with his front leg out stretched. This time it was usually his front arm was extended forward parallel to the leg. His back arm was cocked back often times prepared for a solid punch. He knew most of the punches that came from this stance would be packed with lightning chakra.

His third and final stance, he had gotten when he was walking down to the training ground. He had heard a loud cry of "Dynamic Entry!" the name stuck with him ever sense. This stance he often would do a one-eighty spin into it. This stance was more tucked in than the other stances. His right and left arms were both closer to his chest, and he was able to use the momentum from the spin most of the time to theoretically keep his opponent air born. Whether that be through kicks or through punches, he had yet to decide. However that was one of the qualities that he enjoyed about the so called Dynamic Entry. It was flexible, he could even used the momentum to slide right into the Silent Entry if the situation ever changed.

He was extremely happy with what he was able to pull off so far the more he thought about it. He knew a taijutsu expert may call it foolish, to have no defensive training in the style besides an instinctive block, or the occasional parry. However Naruto saw potential and a work of art. With how his speed was increasing, and he knew the use of lightning chakra would only help matters. He couldn't help but become extremely excited.

The only problem that he could foresee in the future with this style would be, something with an ultimate defense. However by that time he would be quick enough to get away. Or someone just bigger, stronger, and faster than him. This was a problem he knew that he would conquer when he grew older. He was happy that currently, he was only going to be fighting people his age.

After a long process of thinking he let out a breath and sighed. He looked at the ring on his right middle finger as it gleamed in the light. _Why did Kyuubi want him to have this?_

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Yes the chapter Had no talking, and yes the chapter was one scene. I believe that was a first for me, and I have just shown you can make a decent length chapter with those two qualities.

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Anyways this chapter, as I continued writing I realized I was just going to post the fighting style. Two reasons, one the fighting style was getting rather long and lengthy and the scene that would have followed would have been the same. This leads to number 2, if I continued to write the chapter, I would not finish in time to post today. Good news is that once I put this up, I may continue writing tonight and get the next chapter out later tomorrow.

Anyways thank you everyone that had helped me out with the fighting style. Some were actually genius, and I went over them with a friend on AIM when I read them. They were something I never thought of, but would have worked really well. It came down to a problem. I would need to write something that I knew the ins and outs of. While in theory, some things sound good. If you can't completely comprehend them, it is likely better to keep your mouth shut and take the time to ask questions rather then act as if you know what you are talking about. Sadly, with this personal challenge I have given myself, I don't have time on my side. Updating once a day is rather tough. I screwed up and pushed myself backwards, no longer posting on new days at 1-2am, I am posting at nights near 11pm. That is bad... lol.

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**The style is the style of a character(Lars) from a game called Tekken 6.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Tekken (any form).**

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**Rate on the scale of 1-10 did you like the style that I(didn't create but explained) is it clear enough for everyone? I can go more in depth on it if necessary, but I personally feel like I did a good job with the description. I could however be wrong... you never know.**

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**Next chapter you get to find out, why Naruto has Konan's ring. As well as I hope to introduce the two exam characters. They seem to keep slipping out of the chapters...**

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**Also if anyone can think of an alternate exam for the first and second phase of the chunin exams I am all ears. I particularly don't want to write the Forest of Death. I mean I can if there is no other option, I am just personally tired of it. I am open to all options as long as they are plausible.(Meaning relative walking distance from Konoha.) and not rip offs from stories that have done original things.**

**A good example would be (I think it was A Twist of Fate?) finding a way to escape from a building from the testing room where they took the written exam. The building however has now been heavily wired with traps. You have to escape as a team. I wont go into details, but you get the picture.**

**Anyways read and review.  
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	17. You Can Trust Me Or Trust Nobody

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

Ugh... quick note. Today our internet went out mid way through the night for some reason. I have been waiting for it to come back the majority of the night. I feel like I missed my personal deadline because of that -.-'. However It did give me more time to write a chapter, and what happened... I got bored. So when I was bored I just continued and ended up writing a lemon. Now You have been warned here, and you will be warned 2 more times below. This lemon wasn't originally intended, but it really doesn't change a thing between the characters. There is no "Forgiveness." between them. I would like everyone to take the time to read it or at least skim through it because it gives insight into what the characters think about the situation.

I hope you like the chapter. I now know for a fact that next chapter you will see the two secret shinobi to the chunin exams btw, sorry for it not being this chapter.

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Naruto sighed, it he had just finished his personal training for the day. He trained all the way through the night, taking about three hours at random intervals to sleep. It was nearly noon, and he knew that for the day he was done. The ring on his finger was now starting to become an annoyance. It had been awhile, nearly a week since he truly asked himself why Kyuubi had given it to him. He however washed the thought away from his mind through training twice as hard. He was impressed with himself, he was nearly done with the style with a week to spare. Of course, he would just spend that time refining it. That didn't mean that he couldn't take a day off though.

Naruto adjusted the ring on his finger once again today. It wasn't like usual when he was training and his hand would get wet and the ring would occasionally start to feel funny on his soft skin. No it was more along the lines of a constant fluctuating chakra coming from the ring. He could still remember when he went to speak to Kyuubi about it.

_Flashback_

_Naruto had been walking home after his... special goodbye with Haku. To be honest, he needed a shower. It had taken him awhile to catch her, but she started to slow down quicker then he did and when he saw that he opted to full of sprint to catch up to her. He ended up nearly tackling her to a ground, at which point they rolled like large cats play fighting with each other. Naruto had ended up pinning her down, she was a ninja, she could take it. That of course didn't stop them from being completely covered in dirt before they proceeded to "Say goodbye" on the forest floor._

_Naruto had listened to what Haku had told him about his speed, and he thought about it the entire way home. He was having just a fine time doing that as well until he reached his apartment door. It was wide open which in turn caused him to scowl. People had broken into his house so many times that he had started hiding his personal belongings in the most unconventional places he could think of. For example, he highly doubted that shinobi would look for a wad of cash hidden in the broken ice box of the fridge. Or taped mission payments inside a roll of paper towels._

_Of course imagine his annoyance when he walked inside on guard only to see a red headed female sitting on his bed, with her shoes on it, tossing a broken kunai up and down. Before he could say anything the fox sighed, "I thought these things were supposed to be sharp?" she turned to Naruto with a questioning look. Yet beneath it all he knew there was a smirk, she was trying to get a rise out of him._

_"Really I never noticed? What are you doing in my home?" He started by rolling his eyes and finishing sending Kyuubi a glare._

_Kyuubi gave a pout, that Naruto knew wasn't serious in the least. "Naruto-kun, I'm hurt... Your home? This home is just as much mine as it is yours."_

_Naruto rolled his eyes once again, he didn't want to get into the meaningless fights he would often get into with Kyuubi, he just cut straight to the point. "Well great, since your here. I don't have to go through the trouble of finding you. I need you to-"_

_Kyuubi cut him off and finished the sentence for him, "Tell you how to manipulate lightning chakra, I know." she said tapping her head lightly. It got the point across 'I can read your thoughts.'_

_Naruto scowled a bit when she did that. It meant that none of his thoughts were truly private to just him alone. It was frustrating Kyuubi could just listen in on everything he was thinking. More so for the fact that she was likely listening to this as well. "Right, well... Anyways I need you to tell me how to do that."_

_Kyuubi pouted once again and surprisingly, this time it actually appeared to be serious. "Naruto-kun, didn't I tell you that fire is much more fun than lightning?" There was a glint of amusement in her eye. Naruto glared at Kyuubi in return. It was at times impossible to get through to her._

_"Yes, that coming from a demon that terrorizes villages in her spare time and condemns children to lives of hell." Naruto nearly snarled._

_Kyuubi tilted her head and cocked an eyebrow as she stared at Naruto, "Ohhh... hell is far worse than this." Her voice came out silky smooth. Yet the message gave off a sense of danger. If she spoke that calmly about hell, it was either a lie, or she was telling the truth. He sighed, if hell really existed, if he could possibly go there... he knew she was probably telling the truth. So instead he let that subject drop and pressed on._

_"The lightning chakra manipulation?" he asked with a raised eyebrow as he crossed his arms over his chest._

_Kyuubi swung her feet over the side of the bed and smiled at Naruto, "Now what exactly makes you think that I would bother knowing about you mortal ninjas and your pathetic form of ninja techniques? If I ever felt the needed to cause lightning, I would merely will it to happen." she said this with a completely straight face, her eyes piercing through Naruto._

_Naruto felt unnerved at that thought. He was standing in front of a demon that could just... will a lightning strike to happen? He however didn't want to show his surprise or fear to her so he continued to think on his toes for anyway Kyuubi would teach him something. "I thought someone of your strength would actually both learning about us. Of course if you didn't bother to learn about us, then how is it you know that you are the superior beings? Perhaps it is you and the demons that are inferior?" Naruto questioned trying his best to pull up a questioning yet intimidating gaze._

_Kyuubi's eyes suddenly narrowed, and she moved her hands to her side to balance herself on the bed. "Naruto?" she asked calmly, not bothering to look him in the eye. "Did you just insinuate that I was inferior to the insolent, pathetic, and weak humans. Inferior to this pathetic excuse of a race?" she stood up in the room, she wasn't that much taller than Naruto. However her presence seemingly filled the air and made it thick, and harder to breathe._

_Naruto grit his teeth, perhaps it wasn't one of the best things to say. There were no chakra spikes, no pillars of fire. Yet he could not move, he could not run, he could not respond to the red headed woman as she approached him. He thought she was going to strike him, perhaps he had lost the qualities that had made him interesting when he made that comment about her. Did it sound like he was trying to order her around?_

_He pursed his lips as she got within striking distance, however he could only breath a sigh of relief when Kyuubi has walked into the kitchen to his right. She turned on the water and began to wash her hands, she didn't use soap or anything. However he honestly didn't think she could possibly be very dirty anyways. She splashed some water on her face with a sigh, and wiped her face on her clothes._

_Naruto would have felt that this would have been perfectly fine if he was able to move. However... he couldn't. Not a moment later he heard Kyuubi call his name again, "Naruto?" she asked before giving a drawn out pause. "I don't appreciate you insulting me, or my race." she said slowly and calmly. She used the enticing voice that he had initially heard her used. It made him grit his teeth, this time there was danger behind her voice._

_Naruto felt the situation was rather ironic that she obviously was mad at that fact that he had taken a stab at demons. Yet she took stabs at humans all the time. However his entire world shut down when she suddenly brushed past him whispering, "Lets see how you do with third stage stomach cancer." The weight Naruto had on him that stopped him from moving instantly lifted. However he didn't care because he suddenly had a new symptom, pain._

_Naruto fell to the floor and coughed up blood as Kyuubi stood in front of him. She made special note to step on his fingers. Perhaps it was her guilty pleasure to cause him pain. He didn't know, all he knew was this was the first time he actually felt significant pain and he wasn't healing right before his eyes._

_Kyuubi crouched down in front of Naruto who was on his hands and knees, spitting the blood out of his mouth. Some landed on her hand, which she promptly wiped off on Naruto's cheek and in his hair. "I will tell you what Naruto-kun." she said with a smile. "First you look at me." she motioned with a finger which caused Naruto's head to snap to her direction and look her in the eyes. Naruto grit his teeth at the pain he felt at that sudden movement. "You are going to wear this ring on your right middle finger at all times. Don't bother to take it off, you and I both know that I will know if you take it off." she said commandingly._

_Naruto grit his teeth. This was the second time he was put in a situation by Kyuubi where he was utterly helpless. It was pathetic. Naruto nodded slowly as he kept blinking his eyes from the new found pain. Not that it mattered, Kyuubi was already in the process of slipping the ring on his hand.  
_

_She leaned forward and whispered in his ear the trick to manipulating lightning Chakra, however he didn't even remember what she had said until after the encounter. The pain was blinding. He just remembered feeling if he could even trust her with telling the truth. That was why he was surprised when it suddenly stopped. He heard her voice from by the door, "I'll be back for your chunin exams. You better win, I have given you more then enough tools to succeed. For example, enhanced regeneration." On that note he promptly had the damaged kunai knife from before sticking out of his hand with a paper tied to it by string that was starting to burn up from the bottom._

_Naruto's eyes widened at first thinking it was an exploding note. That was until his exhale of breath turned the paper around and it had a single note scrawled in elegant hand writing._

_'You can trust me or trust nobody._

_With love, your favorite demon._'

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So here he was walking down the street on his self imposed day off. They had been mission free since wave, as had been his team and team 10. It was nice to actually take a break from his training. Sure it puzzled him what the ring on his hand was for. However that was much easier to push out of his mind with a bowl of ramen, something he hadn't had in a long time.

Naruto paused mid step down the street as he realized where he was in the village. He made a right into a small walk way filled with house doorsteps. However he didn't have to walk far, his destination was the first house on right. He walked up to the doorstep and rang the bell. It hadn't taken long for the door to be opened by his teammate.

He was a bit surprised that she would open the door in her current state. Well she more like cracked it open, but regardless it didn't take away from the fact that she answered the door with a towel wrapped around her torso, and was rubbing her hair with another pink towel.

Naruto pursed his lips as he invited himself into his teammates house with a step in the doorway. His teammate Sakura rolled her eyes at that. They had surprisingly been on better terms since they had gotten back from Wave. It was likely due to the conversation... or should he say argument they had. They had talked on the way back to Konoha in the wagon since they had sat close to each other. They had found they were on much better speaking terms as friends rather then her being the subject of Naruto's love interest.

Secretly, Sakura would never admit that she missed Naruto's affection. However she knew she screwed up, and he now had eyes for other girls. If it was meant to be, then perhaps he would go after her later down the road, or she would go after him. Just right now wasn't the time.

Naruto shot her an amused glance as he took in her wet form wrapped in pink towels, it was almost comical. Her pink skin, wrapped in pink towels, that matched her pink hair. "You look pink?" he said with a small grin on his face.

Sakura rolled her eyes once again, and took in his appearance. His clothes were worn down and beat up. It was as if he only had one set of clothes or something. They were muddy, dirty, and you could almost see rings of sweat. She was surprised that he didn't smell like ammonia.

Naruto took a moment before turning to Sakura, "Hey where is your bathroom?"

Sakura scowled at that, here she was standing in a towel waiting for him to say why he stopped by. "Up the stairs and to the right. Is that why you stopped by?" she asked with a raised eyebrow, the distaste evident in her voice.

Naruto grinned a bit, "No." he said with a smile as began to walk up the stairs.

Sakura nearly wanted to revert to her bad habbits and hit Naruto upside the head, however she was able to control herself. She yelled, "Are you going to tell me why your here?"

Naruto continued walking up the stairs and quipped back, "Not until I take a piss."

Sakura huffed when he said that. She liked it more when Naruto nearly hung on her every word. Had she known that he would practically turn into a strong shinobi over night... if she could go back than maybe...

She let her thoughts wander as a frown graced her features. Perhaps things would have been different, and she could be with Naruto right now. Ino could be going on chasing Sasuke. She sighed and shook her head as she made her way down the stairs. Naruto definitely wasn't one of her most proud moments when it came to her developing and growing up as a person.

She was so wrapped up in her thoughts that she forgot she had company besides Naruto.

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**Ugh... I wasn't going to do it, I told myself I wasn't going to do it. Than suddenly the cable company screwed me over and gave me more time to write the story. However it made me miss the deadline... so some of you may love or hate it, but there is a lemon below. I suggest you read a bit of below, you will be able to tell when the lemon starts. I will leave a bold X there as well. The lemon ends the scene as well, so if you don't want to read it you can move onto the next scene.**

**Personally I think parts of it are "informative" as there are bits and pieces of what Naruto and X think about the situation. However again if you are not a fan of lemons or whatever. You don't have to read it. I am just going to advise readers to read it or at least skim through it. It is also my first lemon, so if you don't like it than just say so and I wont write another. I kept it as close to sex in RL that I know of from personal experience so meh whatever. Nothing fancy like jutsus or whatever I have seen before.**  
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Naruto walked through the door of the bathroom to use it himself, except he then heard the shower running. He nearly thought he had walked in on Sakura's mom until he heard Ino's voice from beyond the curtain. "Sakura can you pull open the curtain and hand me my tower please." she said as she turned off the stream shooting from the shower.

Naruto pursed his lips and had to hold in a laugh as he grabbed the towel. Him and Ino weren't on the best terms that was for sure. She had violated her personal privacy, that thought made him angry. However when he had been training, he realized that over all it hadn't been such a bad thing. Sure he technically had to "Survive third stage stomach cancer." but Kyuubi at the same time helped him. So it wasn't a total loss.

He pulled open the curtain with an amused glint in his eye. The effect was instantaneous. Well nearly, Ino was partially looking away, swatting water off of her naked form. However it didn't stop her from jumping as if a ghost had snuck up on her when she realized it was Naruto. She nearly began to tumble in the wet tub.

Naruto however was surprised, he was quick. He was actually very quick. He had quickly grabbed her from behind her back with one hand, and the other hand had the towel. He was holding her up without needing to balance on anything. His training was definitely paying off.

Ino had a bit of a blush, as did Naruto. She smiled weakly, this was not the way she had wanted to meet Naruto for their conversation they were supposed to have. At least it acted like an ice breaker right?

Naruto sighed and lifted her up so she was standing her up straight. "While it is rather... fun to hold you like this." he said slowly struggling to find the right words. "Your getting cold and... well yeah." he scowled. Ino's naked form had officially turned him into a babbling mess.

**XXX Lemon starts here(unfortunately...)XXX**

Ino on the other hand, while it was a bit of an odd encounter. She was happy with herself. This was the exact reaction she wanted to have on a guy who ever saw her like this, especially Naruto. However she instantly felt the urge to cover up when she realized what he was getting at when he said she was getting cold. She quickly crossed her arms over her chest and stepped out of the shower on to a pink rug. Pink seemed to be the running theme with the house.

Ino didn't bother to cover up her lower regions, it wasn't like that wasn't something he hadn't seen before. She moved over to the door and didn't think much about her actions. She bent over to collect her discard clothes behind the door.

She paused wide eyed as she realized what exactly she just did. She quickly snapped up, a gathered bundle of clothes in her arms. Naruto was standing there, now red faced, and judging from his new posture that consisted of him swaying and shifting slightly on his feet. It looked as if something in his pants was making him a bit uncomfortable.

Ino suddenly got a predatory grin on her face as she looked over at Naruto. She was surprised he was getting that big of a reaction from him, but why not make the best of it? Sakura was likely downstairs changing into her leisure clothes and some light make up for the day.

Ino was always the bigger flirt out of the two of the, regardless of Naruto initiating their initial interaction. She promptly gave Naruto a wink and closed the door. She let the clothes she had in front of her body drop to the floor. She gave a silent one finger up into the air.

Naruto knew it wasn't something he should be doing with Ino. Especially when he was supposed to be mad at her. What the hell did that finger mean anyways? One minute? Just once? One hour? He knew it wouldn't last one minute. He wasn't that kind of guy. He also knew that it couldn't last one hour, Sakura would definitely wonder why he was in her bathroom for an hour. He also knew he wouldn't want to do something with her just once if he started to again. Especially with Haku being gone.

Ino gently sat Naruto at the edge of the tub. The area where she had set him down had enough room for him to lean back and not stumble backwards. That to her was good, because she straddled him right after that.

Naruto groaned as Ino promptly said on him right by his groin. That did absolutely nothing to help his erection go down. He looked at her by tilting his head back slightly against the wall. She had since wrapped her hands around his neck and had a hand in his hair. Their blue eyes met right before Ino leaned in and had her lips meet Naruto's. She wanted to take charge this time, and Naruto while physically responsive was seemingly acting shy at the moment.

The moment passed. Naruto had since let go of rational thought and got caught up with Ino after the kiss. He kissed her back far more fiercely than Ino had kissed him. He had a grin pass over his mouth as he gave her the kiss. Kissing Haku was great, however it still didn't stop him from feeling that kissing Ino was just as good.

He went around and held her at the small of her back as he slowly ran a hand and traced his fingers up and down her back. He was no longer the virgin who hadn't had sex before with Ino. He now knew what he was doing from experience.

Ino was surprised that the switch in Naruto suddenly turned on like that, however she rolled with it none the less. Naruto continued you kiss her every once in awhile surprising her by either nibbling on her lip or giving her some tongue. That was of course until he stopped going for her lips. He gently began to trail kisses down from her mouth and up her jaw line and cheek until it lead him to her ear lobe. Naruto grinned, it was far more fun actually doing things like this when he was even more physically fit.

He surprised Ino by lifting her up by her ass. She of course gave a yelped when this happened, and she just hoped to god Sakura didn't hear that since the shower was no longer running. Sakura's mom seemingly didn't believe in locks on the bathroom door. That was probably because it was just the two of them living there but still... she would want to keep quiet.

Naruto set her on the sink counter and nibble on her earlobe as his left hand rubbed up and down her back. They both got the full view of what was going on since there was a mirror across from them. He had to admit it was entertaining to see Ino's mouth open and close silently judging by how he nibbled on her ear.

Ino grinded her hips a bit closer to Naruto as he began to kiss down her neck. She was already wet from the shower, but Naruto certainly wasn't helping her dry off. She removed her hands from behind his neck and hair to the front of his body. She then went on to unzip his jumpsuit.

Naruto let her take it off of him, she was already Naked, so he didn't particularly need to do any undressing of Ino, which was good. It gave him more time to work on the more sensitive parts of her body.

Ino had taken off his black shirt by this point, which exposed his newly cut chest. It would be a joke to say he wasn't extremely fit for his age. Fit didn't describe it anymore. He was rather muscled, and that was being modest. He was just thankful he didn't have bulging veins popping out of his arms.

Ino ran a hand over his abs which in turn cause Naruto to hiss a breath of excitement. He move from her collar bone to her lips once again, this time kissing straight down her chest. The kisses trailed until he had gotten to her breasts. They were fairly developed for her age, but this wasn't a boob judging contest, so that wasn't what he was going to bother doing. Besides, they were young. They could just reason that since they were old enough to go out and die for their country, they were old enough for sex.

Naruto gave a long lick from the start of her breast to the nipple, which he began to gently suck and nibble on. He began to gently massage the other breast with his right hand as he went to work on the other breast. He kept her nipple between his index and middle finger so he could give extra attention to the nipple by slowly rubbing it with his index finger.

Ino reached down low, now working the button and zipper for his pants while Naruto worked on the opposite breast with his mouth. He took to time to gently blow air on it which gave Ino a shiver. It was frustrating that he would do something like that, and then suddenly blow air onto it. It was nice, and an effective way to turn her on. However it made her made, she almost wanted to remove one of her hands from his waste just to force Naruto back onto her breast.

Naruto however too the opportunity to get his fingers wet with spit. Instead of going back to her breast, he stood up straight and began giving Ino kisses once again. He took the time to nibble on her lip more often. Him standing up was just what Ino needed to unbutton and unzip his pants to allow them to fall to the floor. His frog boxers after that were no trouble at all to get down. Was it a bit childish wearing froggy boxers? Maybe a bit, but that was Naruto's own style. She couldn't judge him on his boxers when he had just lead two teams on an S-rank mission. She also couldn't judge him if his fingers moved like that.

She let out a gasp as two of Naruto's fingers explored her folds. She wrapped her arms back around Naruto's neck tighter than earlier before. He kept moving his fingers up and down in her massages a bulb inside her that continued to build pressure. This was definitely better than what happened their first time. While their first time was likely much better than most, there was still a bare minimal when it came to any foreplay or whatever. She now truly understood what the kunoichi teachers were talking about during her academy days when she and Sakura had overheard the term 'Good with his hands.'

She had let her thoughts drift, however she had been brought back to reality by the intense feeling of pleasure and pressure building up in her. It came to the point where she told herself 'Yeah screw it, I want it now.'

She took her hand around and gently spit in it. They found out the first time around, it was much easier if the cock was wet before it went in. She reached down and rubbed the spit over Naruto's cock gently. He gave her a look of surprise, part of the look clearly said 'I thought I was in charge?'

Ino of course tried her best to complete the silent conversation with a smirk that said, 'Thought wrong.'

She gently guided his uncut organ to her body. It was impressive size, well the size of an average male. However considering he was twelve it was impressive. When he pushed in she realized that every second of foreplay was worth it.

She let out a undignified moan, it was nearly a squeal of delight when Naruto had gotten fully burried inside of her. Naruto began moving gently as he leaned in and whispered, "Damn Ino keep it down."

Ino scowled, "I'd like to see you keep it down if you were feeling what I'm feeling!" she whispered harshly with a scowl as Naruto continued to pick up his thrusting pace.

Naruto grinned at her, before giving one long thrust that burried himself balls deep in her. He was lucky to catch her near scream of pleasure with his lips in a kiss, and it came out as a muffled "Ungggh..." However it was entertaining none the less. Ino however didn't find it amusing in the least, however since she couldn't yell "You planned that you bastard!" she would have to settle for a glare that quickly disappeared as Naruto picked up a quicker pace.

Naruto grabbed her from behind her neck and back and leaned in as he was thrusting to give him a bit more speed and power. However it also let him quickly whisper, "Birth control Ino..."

The young Kunoichi's eyes widened for a moment before she quickly went through the hand seals. Or at least she tried to quickly. She got through them rather slowly and sloppily. She knew the definition of sex, it was something she could never forget, the medical analysis of sex. It could kill you, the human body actions such as Pupils dilating, arteries constricting, the bodies core temperature rises, heart races, blood pressure skyrockets, respiration becomes rapid and shallow, the brain fires bursts of electrical impulses from nowhere to nowhere and secretions spit out of every gland, and the muscles tense and spasm like you're lifting three times your body weight. She got through the seals, but it didn't stop her from seeing the truth.

Sex was violent, ugly, and messy. She wouldn't have it if Kami hadn't made it so damn fun.

Naruto just then hit a spot in her body that made her see stars. She quickly gasped, "Right there." as silently as she possibly could. She knew they had been in the bathroom for awhile, Sakura could be looking for them at any moment now.

Naruto moved his hand a bit to position himself better, however he only snarled when he slammed his hand on a razor. It was a good thing that at the moment he didn't care and knocked it off the sink. The cut would heal quickly.

Naruto picked her up by the ass once again, however this time he had no intention of setting her down at the moment. He began thrusting in her roughly while gravity just caused her to fall into the thrusts. From that point on it didn't take long, ino was biting her own lip to keep herself from screaming. That was until her first orgasm hit, tears nearly welled in her eyes it was so intense. Naruto prolonged her orgasm as long as possible until his hit due to her contracting walls.

True to the male orgasm, while feeling absolutely fantastic. The only way Naruto was able to describe it at this time was a bunch of claw scratching out from the inside of his penis while he ejaculated. Thank god for ninja and their more advanced forms of birth control.

Naruto lifted Ino off of him, at which point the remains of both orgasms dripped down onto her shinobi training clothes. Naruto silently grinned and thanked Ino for tossing his clothes off to the side of the bathroom.

Once they had finished however reality set in. That solved absolutely nothing, if anything it could have made their strained relationship worse. Why fun, it was only a temporary fix to a bigger problem. "Hey Ino... I'm going to rinse off real quick, then you can take a shower." He looked at the 'evidence' running down her leg slowly, which she was trying to wipe off with toilet paper. "You need it."

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**Lemon Ends...**  
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With a satisfied grin Naruto walked down the stairs and back into the kitchen near where Sakura had answered the door. Sakura was sitting there eating a power bar and reading a book titled _Physical Training and You.  
_  
Sakura didn't bother to look up, "That was one long piss Naruto." she said as she raised an eyebrow not bothering to look up from her book.

Naruto grinned as he sat down across from his teammate, "Oh well you know, whenever I piss I clog the toilet."

Sakura rolled her eyes as she took the last bite of the power bar and threw the wrapper at Naruto. "So why did you come here?" she asked in annoyance at the entire situation. She wasn't naive to what happened upstairs.

Naruto paused before holding up two fingers, "One, I wanted to see if you wanted to come get some ramen with me. Two, I was wondering if you minded if I stayed here for awhile?" The second was definitely less confident than it would of originally been. He just had sex with Ino in her bathroom.

Sakura pursed her lips and marked her page in the book. "Two maybes..." she said as she closed her book and walked over to the fridge.

Naruto was still a bit disappointed however when it wasn't a solid yes, "Wait what? Why just maybe?"

Sakura shook her head from behind the fridge door, "Well do you plan to screw me in the bathroom too Naruto?" When she closed the fridge, Naruto was a deep shade of red. It was one thing knowing that the person in front of you likely knew you were doing something you weren't supposed to in their home. It was another to be caught red handed openly by the said person.

Naruto paused and copied Sakura's response, "Umm... one maybe?"

Sakura's cheeks grew a tint of red, but she was supposed to be the frustrated one. She couldn't let Naruto see her actually blushing at the idea. She quickly turned around, "Too bad, a yes may have improved your chances."

Naruto paused and stared at her back, before grinning a bit. This Sakura, while she was probably mad at him... she wasn't hitting him and was honestly far more fun to talk to. He could definitely get used to this.

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Ugh I can't believe I wrote a lemon and posted it on Fanfiction dot net -.-'. This has forced me to back up my story twice lol. Overly paranoid after what happened with another one of my stories. Anyways, it was my first lemon. If you liked it congratz than my response it "Well its just a god given gift for me to being able to write smut." if you didn't like it my response is, "It was my first time writing one, so I will just keep getting bigger and better."

xxx

Anyways on the actual plot. I wanted Sasuke and Sakura to develop, as I did Ino. While this really didn't do much for Ino, it actually set the stage perfectly for me to mold Sakura and Sasuke.

Kyuubi scene was fun to write, I hope you enjoyed that bit. Trying to further emphasize that everything you thought Kyuubi "Could do" for example manipulating chakra and what not. Being destructive. You are still in for a bunch of what she can do, it is a matter of when I plan to introduce it. Just know she is incredibly powerful, and most characters in comparison look like a joke compared to her when it comes to strength.

Hopefully I wont get stalled again by my cable company and will get the chapter out on time.

Till then I reward you a chapter that is nearly twice as long compared to usual chapters.

xxx

**Rate the lemon 1-10 please. I just want to know if people liked it. I have yet to decide if I will include another on fanfiction dot net.**

**x**

**love the chunin exam Ideas, one has actually particularly interested me for the first phase. However I wont release what it is until I post the chapter.**

**x**

**Same question as last chapter, chunin exam ideas. I got one review however that said something like "It's probably a bad idea."**

**Wrong, none of your ideas are bad and I read all of the reviews and take each one into consideration. So please just be confident, while you may think it is a crappy idea, I may think it is fantastic. So feel free to post any idea you get.  
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	18. You Will Like The Way You Look

"Maybe my ass." Naruto said with a grin as he woke up in the morning. It had been nearly a week since he had first started staying at Sakura's. The chunin exams were right around the corner. He stretched his arms broadly as he sat up in the bed of Sakura's guest bedroom. It had been relatively peaceful at the house, and he had to admit he liked the idea of living with his teammate. It was one of those things where he could wake up in the morning and see a friendly face before he stepped outside and received negative looks from the people passing by. It was partially why he enjoyed being alone at times. Why would he want to bother spending time with people that could very well be lying to his face?

His progress on his fighting style had been completed earlier than expected because the last couple days he said "Screw it," and proceeded to double the amount of clones he usually made. Was it taxing? Was he often wanting to eat with his head laying on Sakura's dinner table? Yes? Was it worth it and useful? Most definitely.

He practiced the style constantly the past few days, even sometimes skipping dinner a couple times. The second time he found out the harsh way from Sakura that skipping dinner was not okay. She said that she didn't care if he was at the dinner table, however he sensed a bit of a lie in that. However she did say if she cooked dinner for him again yet he missed when dinner was being served again she would cripple him.

He knew it was an empty threat, she wouldn't cripple him, and even if she wanted to she wouldn't be able to. Still, he understood where she was coming from and was no longer late for dinner anymore. He had to admit that over the past few days he and Sakura had developed a rather good relationship. It was odd that their relationship could go from abusive, to good friends in a matter of weeks.

Ino occasionally stopped by every couple of days, however things were just even more awkward than before they had sex. It was only intensified by the fact that Sakura wouldn't let them both go upstairs at the same time, which was albeit rather funny.

However the whole Ino situation he wanted to get off his mind at the moment. He had bigger things to worry about, for example his payment due to Sakura for letting him stay at her house. She got to help him pick out a decent set of clothes for a shinobi. As of right now he was currently stuck wearing the tattered and dirty remains of his shinobi clothes, which while they have been washed now... they weren't a pretty sight.

Naruto sighed and quickly went through his daily routine and made his wad downstairs. It brought a smile to his face knowing that he could go downstairs and spot Sakura sipping tea while once again hounding over a book. He already assumed it was the case, but over the last few days he was able to solidify his theory that Sakura was a total book worm. It was odd because being a book worm usually didn't come along with the qualities of a girl who is constantly worrying and wondering about her current appearance.

She was fully dressed and ready to go out. She looked up briefly from her book that she was reading to look over Naruto appraisingly, "So... are you ready to go?" she questioned quietly. Naruto in turn just opted for a shrug. He hadn't eaten yet but he wasn't that hungry anyways. Thats why he felt rather lame walking over and opening the fridge just to stare it in wondering what he should eat.

Sakura's mother was part of the civilian council. She just recently was sent to Suna to discuss... whatever the hell it is they planned to discuss. She sposedly left right before Sakura allowed him to move in. She planned to be coming home around the time of the chunin exam finals. Naruto was honestly a bit surprised Sakura's mom would do something like that. However in obvious anger she just choose to snap at him a bit, "Yeah, well Naruto having parents isn't all what it is cracked up to be."

That argument... she let out the words quickly and probably wasn't thinking much about what she was exactly saying. Still it hurt a bit.

Naruto closed the fridge quickly, "Alright whatever lets just get this over with." he said with a crestfallen voice. He felt as if all the money he just earned for his mission was suddenly going to disappear. Sakura practically dragged him out of the house once he said that he was ready to go. It was actually a fairly peaceful walk as well, they past by several shops in what Naruto liked to call the "Market District." it sounded a lot better than "A whole collection of shops that collectively don't have a name."

Naruto's eyes perked up as he saw the local thrift store. It was one of the stores that wasn't exactly biased to him. He even talked to the owner before, he said it would be "Pretty fucked up of myself" to deny him second hand or even third hand clothes.

Naruto grinned, "Hey Sakura want to check out the thrift store?" Sakura paused mid step. She turned to look at Naruto with the 'Are you serious?' look. Naruto sighed, "Hey there could be some good clothes in there, what are you giving me that look for."

Sakura merely rolled her eyes and proceeded to drag Naruto down the street, "Naruto, I am most definitely not going to be shopping for clothes in a thrift store." she said thrift with distaste which made Naruto frown. There were really good clothes in there, he just usually never had money to spare.

Sakura dragged him into a nearby shinobi store. He knew he saw her hesitate with the action as across the street was a fashion store he knew that she enjoyed to shop at. Naruto walked in the door with his tattered clothes, which could loosely considered rags covering his body. There were few times that Naruto actually felt embarrassed. Now was one of them, he alone attracted a lot of attention whether it be negative or positive for just being Uzumaki Naruto. Now he walked into a shinobi store dressed in rags, female and male shinobi ranging from genin to jounin all took a glance at him. It was a bit frustrating to be honest. "Sakura hurry up and pick out some clothes please." Naruto said with a frown on his face. At least at the thrift store he wouldn't have been the only person in rags.

Sakura sighed, it was so much easier shopping with Ino. She understood that these things took time. "What are your favorite colors Naruto?"

Naruto stared... he knew it was impolite and it was a simple question. However he had never been asked the question before. He had practically been forced to wear orange, which was a bit frustrating. It made him stick out like a sore thumb in the forests of Konoha. Almost as if the store clerks wanted to kill him.

_"Oh wait..." _Naruto thought to himself with a frown, that probably was the case. That thought left a bad taste in his mouth. Naruto sighed as he thought over all of his color choices. He liked blue, but he didn't want to mirror Sasuke's outfit. He liked red, much to his displeasure since it meant that Kyuubi was partially right with red being a good color. He liked black and brown, many dark colors actually. However I guess that was supposed to be expected of a boy, to like dark colors.

Naruto didn't want to keep Sakura waiting, "Ummm I don't know, dark colors I guess?" he said trying to convince himself.

Sakura scowled, "Naruto! Thats not helpful at all! How hard is the question, 'What is your favorite color?'" It was official, Ino was a hundred times easier to shop with than Naruto was.

Naruto was starting to get heated, they were beginning to attract attention to themselves, he was already practically walking around with clothes that allowed more skin to be shown than the hookers you find in the poorer districts of the village. He looked anywhere before laying his eyes on his ring, "Fine white!" he said quickly in frustration.

Sakura however stared, "What the hell? Naruto that is the exact opposite of dark colors!" she had toned her voice down in the store when she realized people were staring. However her loud whispers still attracted attention. Attention that Naruto especially didn't want.

"You know what Sakura, I just don't think this is the fucking right store for me!" he nearly yelled that and rushed out of the store away from the shinobi that were pretending to mind their own business, however were secretly staring at the scene. If they wanted entertainment they could go to the damn movies, right now he actually needed clothes.

Naruto rushed off back down the street intent on going to the thrift store, at least he would be shopping there alongside homeless people. He wouldn't stick out as much regardless of the fact he wore orange. Sakura followed him in pursuit, they didn't need to start up a high speed chase in Konoha. However Naruto was certainly taking longer strides that she was despite his shorter size. He was slowly pulling away from her.

Sakura resisted the urge to hit Naruto once she noticed him cut right into the thrift store. She showed him a perfectly fine store, where many people go to shop. Yet here he goes into a store where he likely wont find any proper shinobi wear. It was like being slapped in the face, especially since she was supposed to help him get clothes.

Naruto walked into the only thrift store in the village. He had expected it to be rather musty due to all of the second hand clothes, many of them likely haven't been washed. However to his surprise it didn't small bad at all, in fact it smelled almost fruity. Like someone periodically walked up and down the store with cans of air freshener and emptied it's contents.

Sakura stepped in and caught up to Naruto. She didn't understand why exactly, but his entire demeanor changed in this store. He was standing up, looking around clothing racks. He actually looked like he was having fun when he tried on the hats on the rack at random. He would laugh and do a spin with the hat on his head. Sakura looked on with a frown on her face, 'Those hats could have lice... doesn't he know that?' she asked herself silently.

Naruto spotted her looking at him with the hats and practically read her mind. He had advanced quite a bit in lightning chakra. If these hats had lice, they would be properly electrocuted upon touching his hair.

Sakura looked around the room for an answer to Naruto's sudden change. What made this store funner for Naruto? She looked around the store only to see racks of clothes, even some boxes on the ground. The people in the store didn't look like they had much money, some even looked like they hadn't had a great shower in awhile. She suddenly turned to Naruto and understood why he was having a better time here... these people were similar to him. Low on money, wearing clothes that resembled rags. In this store Naruto wasn't the center of attention, he was just a customer.

Sakura suddenly saw movement right next to her at the counter, and the voice of an older woman calmly said, "I came to donate these." before the rattle of several clothes being put on the counter came to her ears. She didn't turn to look at the woman, instead she was staring at Naruto. His gaze looked on the woman for a moment, and he suddenly got a gleam in his eye before he began to casually walk over to the woman who was donating large amounts of clothes. She was dressed like she was well off, she had all of the clothes previously dry cleaned as Naruto could tell from the bags many of them were in.

She took off her glove and began to look in her purse, that was until Sakura saw Naruto do something that surprised her. He put on his best charming smile and said, "Those are fantastic." as he motioned to the clothes.

The woman in a fur coat turned around in a bit of a surprise, "Ohhh! Well they belong to my late husband, Toppah. He had a great taste in clothes." she said slowly as a small smile came to her face. Sakura peered over to the counter as saw the clothes being pulled out of the bag and could barely hold back her surprise. The clothes must cost hundreds, those while albeit male clothes, were the type of expensive clothes that Sakura had only been allowed to look at from a distance because she knew that she had no where near the type of money to by the clothes.

Naruto gave a sigh, "Ahh, May I?" he extended his hand slightly to a large fur coat that the store clerk pulled out of the bag. It was brown fur, obviously rather expensive. Near the neck of the large coat, the fur was more pronounced and noticeably. Now Naruto was by no means an ace when it came to good clothes. However he was an ace at getting people to like him if they didn't know much about him. This woman seemed to A: not know much about him or B: not enough to care about his background.

"This is from The Land of Snow." he said in surprise as he looked at the tag. He hoped that the woman would expand on the subject, he wanted these clothes and was just trying his best to get in her good graces.

The woman tossed her black gloves on the pile of clothes, "Yes well we won it from the tyrant Kazahana himself." she said with a smile on her face.

Naruto silently racked his brain for any knowledge on this person. He knew a lot more about criminals than one would think. While he would never openly admit it, criminals interested him greatly. He loved the idea that these men were able to turn shit to sugar and make something out of nothing. He looked up various cons and crime lords over the past few years to try and figure out ways that he could replicate what they did and get himself a bit of money. However he lacked something they all had... resources.

It suddenly clicked for him, Kazahana, rogue ninja that imperialized Snow Country. "Why? How..." Naruto started clearly confused as to how a civilian could possible have won something over a ninja.

"He beat him in a game of poker." the woman said with a smile on her face as if remembering her late husband. Naruto gave out an amused laugh, of course the tyrant that takes over an entire country lost articles of clothing to a civilian in a game of cards...

"Your husband played poker with Dotō Kazahana?" he asked in near disbelief.

Sakura was watching the scene in mild surprise, one being Naruto blatantly just charming this woman right before her eyes. She always depicted Naruto to be more antisocial. How the hell was he even understanding who the woman was talking about? She had never seen him willingly pick up a book in his entire life yet here he was knowing about a criminal that was off the mainland continent several days by ship.

The older woman gave a laugh and nodded as Naruto proceeded to try on the coat. It was obvious the man wasn't very tall, probably a few inches taller than his wife, and she was practically his size. The coat was a bit longer than it should be, but it fit him quite nicely. It wasn't like it was covering and folding over his hands, or dragging on the ground. It was just an in or so longer at the bottom. Nothing big.

She proceeded to tell Naruto about how she used to be able to sit in on a few hands of poker with her husband, and how she often times beat them which brought a smile to his face. He was focusing the best he could, despite the fact that he could possibly be getting a bunch of new fancy clothes right now.

Naruto flipped a hat onto his head with a laugh, it was a fancy hat that was reserved for people who had deep pockets and enjoyed dressing nice. "I'm glad to see you are enjoying these, I was hoping someone would." the woman said with a smirk on her face. It was nice to see someone appreciating her husbands clothes. "I have at least a whole closet full of these."

Naruto went bug eyed for a second but regain his composure, "A whole closet?" he repeated in surprise.

The woman gave a laugh, "Well actually it is more like a guest room I have been using for storage..."

Sakura suddenly got annoyed, this woman was playing right into Naruto's hand. A full room full of clothes that were so expensive she could only dream of getting something of that price with the current amount of money she was making doing d-ranks.

Naruto decided to hopefully seal the deal, "Man... if only I could afford clothes like these..." he left the comment open and in the air, it was the perfect bait for the rich woman.

"You don't have the money for these clothes?" she asked in surprise. The boy appeared to have good taste. Of course that was until she looked over his appearance, his tattered rags. She quickly turned to the woman working the counter, "I am sorry darling, I will have to bring by some clothes tomorrow, today these will be going to this young boy..." she paused realizing she had never gotten his name.

Naruto smiled with a bit of a grin on his face, moment of truth. He outstretched his hand to her, "Naruto, Uzumaki Naruto." he said with a charming grin.

It was in the bag.

"Right well here Naruto-kun, you seem like a charming young man, with an especially great taste in clothes. Here let me write down my address for you..." she said finishing in a mumble as she took a pen off the counter and began to scribble her address on a spare piece of paper. "You can have these clothes here today, and be sure to stop by sometime, I have more than enough clothes to give away." She promptly put on her gloves and walked away with her purse under her arm to do... whatever it is that rich woman do during the day.

Naruto was currently putting the clothes back in their bags as he shot Sakura a grin. "Now who said that you can't get good clothes in a thrift store?"

Sakura could only stand there giving Naruto a glare before she promptly said, "Shut up, hurry up and get your clothes." He had gotten some on the most expensive clothes she had ever seen, enough outfits to last him at least two to possibly even three weeks before he even needed to start repeating articles of clothing. Worst of all, or best of all depending how she wanted to look at it. He had gotten all of this stuff for free. "I'll be outside." she said with a sigh. Only Naruto would be able to pull such a thing off, lucky bastard.

Naruto was out of the store shortly after most of the stuff was sealed in a scroll except one set of dry cleaned clothes, black shoes, and sunglasses. He quickly called out to Sakura, "Hey hold on! Come here." he said quickly as he was walking closer and closer to an alley by the shop. Sakura followed him, although still annoyed with the conversation.

Once she reached Naruto who was standing a couple feet into a alley with barely enough space to walk through, "What now?" she asked in frustration. Naruto grinned at how frustrated she was getting over the fact that he now had gotten himself some decent clothes and she was getting jealous.

"I need you to stand there." he said quickly as he began stripping down of his orange clothes and worn out shinobi sandals. "You could have told me you were jealous." he said with a bit of a grin coming across his face.

Sakura could only scowl at that, "I'm not jealous. You just got lucky, and got away with something good for yourself." she tried to continue to convince herself she wasn't jealous but still continued to fail horribly. She was jealous, she just didn't want to admit it.

Naruto had just put on the expensive black slacks, "So why are you in such a crappy mood now then?" he was in the process of putting on a loose which white shirt that hung quite a bit that revealed the majority of his muscled chest. That was until he said "Screw it!" and threw the shirt back into the bag and put on the brown fur coat he had on earlier. He looked a bit like a thug with the expensive shoes, the black slacks, the muscled chest and brown fur coat on.

Sakura got a bit of a red tint to her cheek which couldn't be noticed very easily in the current shadow of the alley. "I'm not in a crappy mood, anyways are you done.?" she said the first part trying to convince herself, however when that didn't personally work for her she just choose to change the subject.

Naruto shrugged, "Yeah I'm fine." they both stepped out of the alley, Naruto now liking his new look. He was going to walk down the street from here and grab a bowl of ramen, until of course he heard a yell of a little boy.

It didn't take long for Naruto and Sakura both to feel compelled to rush off in the direction of the noise. They took to the roof tops only to drop down in a fenced walk way where there were two shinobi and three little children. One of the kids had just been dropped on the ground by a boy wearing something akin to black pajamas and make up. He had a big wrapped object on his back, and had no idea what it exactly was.

The other shinobi was a blonde who had a giant fan on her back and seemed to wear fishnet under her shinobi wear. Naruto grit his teeth, he didn't specifically know who the kids were. However he did know what it felt like to be bullied, so for the first time, he tested his newly developed fighting style on a live opponent.

Naruto's body surged with electrical chakra, just enough to speed him up, but not enough to make any visible force of chakra. Naruto hit the ground in an instant and before Sakura or anyone else could tell, he was up in the black clothed boys face and punching him backwards to the ground.

He didn't want to beat the living shit out of him, he just wanted to knock him down so he could tell him something, "It doesn't feel that great being knocked on your ass now does it?"

Sakura was genuinely surprised by Naruto's speed, '_Is this what he has been training to do?_' His speed was far faster than anyone's she had seen as of yet. She felt that her training in fact compared to how much Naruto had improved was insignificant. She pursed her lips, it was another reason to be annoyed yet impressed and happy for Naruto.

The blonde shinobi with the fan on her back looked at Naruto in surprise. They had encountered some strong shinobi in their missions, while they didn't have to do a ton of work seeing as how their younger brother could cripple most shinobi... but still. Most of the shinobi they encountered were slow, and could bring out powerful jutsus, all of which would be turned ineffective against their brother. Yet here was something unique, something she had yet to see. A shinobi that must work purely on his speed, it must have taken years of training to reach that level of speed. "You know it is not in your best interests to attack the son of the Kazekage."

Naruto looked a bit surprised at that as he saw 'Pajama man.' slowly getting to his feet. Sakura however saved him with her smarts, "Just as it isn't in your best interests to attack the grandson of the Hokage."  
This caused The blonde to look over in surprise at the 'Runt' who was scurrying back over to his little friends. She then turned to glare at her brother, that was definitely not in their best interests.

Naruto was about to throw in his two cents until a calm voice spoke from around the corner and he came into view. "Perhaps Suna, you should be on your best behavior while you are outside of your own village." there was a smoothness to his voice that typically wasn't found in a shinobi.

A person came into view, he has a larger than normal headband that covered his eyes and part of his forhead. It was a mystery as to how the person could see, or better yet even know that the team he was addressing were Suna shinobi. His headband was purple and had that of a musical note on the metal plate. He had long white hair and pale white skin. Naruto wouldn't be surprised if they saw his eyes, and found out they were red. The man already appeared to be an albino.

Trailing behind him was a young teenager, she looked no older than fifteen. She had light red hair, almost a pink. It was no where near the pink hair that Sakura had, but it could be close if it were a few shades lighter. She wore a cap on her head and held a small flute in her hand. It was written all over her face that she was rather annoyed and didn't want to be here.

Both he and Sakura knew that the chunin exams were being held soon. Still it was a bit odd to see a Sand team freeze up in the presence of what could only appear to be a random Sound team. Whatever the white haired shinobi had said, whatever hidden message was underneath whatever he said. The two shinobi froze up.

"Perhaps you should let me help your sensei, and we can let the Konoha shinobi go off and do as they please. It would even appear that their teammate is wanting to talk to them." his gaze went up into the tree where sure enough, Sasuke was sitting staring at the scene carrying out below.

Naruto pursed his lips, he could have noticed Sasuke there if his rain was active, but it was still frustrating to find out that this Sound shinobi could notice it before everyone... blind. The Suna shinobi suddenly scurried off with the white haired shinobi following them. There was something definitely off about that man with the white hair to be able to shake up all of the Suna shinobi that easily.

Naruto continued to watch the shinobi's retreating form while Sakura turned to their teammate who currently resided in the tree. "Kakashi wanted me to tell you that we are to meet him at the bridge in tomorrow morning."

Naruto turned to Sasuke just as he finished speaking. He was still frustrated with Sasuke, and wanted to beat him up for Haku having to leave. However in these clothes, the clothes of a former criminal he thought his actions through. He had always wanted to be one of those men that made something out of nothing. They always had more resources than he had, so there was no way for him to do what they did. However... Haku was getting his resources.

Naruto nodded while Sakura went closer to talk a bit with Sasuke. Naruto would have followed if it wasn't for the fact that his ring had pulsed violently on his middle finger. He had no idea what the thing was for since Kyuubi had given it to him. It was just frustrating having an unknown on his person.

He blocked out the pain in his finger and walked over to Sakura. He could at least act civil with his teammate.

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Alright... well there you have it another chapter, all pretty much once ongoing scene lol X.x'

All of your reviews are really making me happy, thank you everyone. Probably one of my motivations to continue writing is being able to look at the story and just see the review count move closer and closer to my goal. So thank you all :). Keep them coming.

x

Anyways I know that why Naruto moved into Sakura's was rather unexplained as of now. However I have her planned to question him about it more come the exam, so don't worry that much about it.

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I'm seriously tired of doing all of the garbage that happens before the exam, so I think I may cut straight to the start of the exam next chapter. Get some exciting stuff going on. Naruto's wardrobe seriously needed to be changed for two reasons lol...

One, I forgot whether I discarded the orange jacket or not 'sweatdrop' One of the main reasons. Another was that the thing was probably brutally torn to bits. I mean he was stabbed twice, Kyuubi has punctured through his clothes before. The wearing and tearing on his shinobi outfit in general. He has been training pretty ridiculously as of late. So yeah... It needed to be changed.

In a bit of a "Miguel Fixation.", The brawler from Tekken I mentioned earlier in an AN when trying to decide Naruto's fighting style. So right now the clothing that I gave him resembles one of his outfits.

I hope I made the process of him going through the "Shopping" that Sakura was supposed to take him on was believable. I think I made it fairly realistic for his current state of wear, and what he would do to get clothes. I always felt that behind the "Happy go lucky" exterior was a boy who had probably looked into cons and ways for himself to get money. Hence "Turn shit to sugar." and the desperate need to want to make something out of nothing.

I don't think pretending to be a person who loved clothes or got really excited about fancy clothes was a stretch when it came to Naruto.

Thus we have him with expensive outfits, gained for free.

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**Dark Mello: **I believe he took a shot in the dark when it came to guessing that the two characters that would appear in the chunin exams would be Kimimaro and Tayuya. Mainly because he went by last name with Kimimaro while I was trying to address people by first name... lol. However I said I would post them when I introduced them in. So Dark Mello, you get a cookie.(Far later than I originally expected.)

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The Naruto meeting the sand team was a bit tough and shaky. I feel that with Kimimaro on the scene that, he would be used more as a control mechanism to make sure that everything goes according to plan. So as such Gaara didn't show up. The sand are rather scared of Kimimaro, which I may go into during some conversation between the siblings or something.

Anyways tell me what you thought about that. I feel that Kimimaro is most definitely someone who should be feared because he died on the same grounds as Kakashi. He was a fighter that was able to hold of a Kyuubi enhanced Naruto army, Lee and Drunken Lee, Gaara, and was about to kill both Gaara and Lee.(Lee was beat, and Gaara was out of chakra) however he died right in front of them due to sickness.

I feel that person should definitely feared on a level of someone like Itachi, who also died to sickness.

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I think I have an idea of what I plan to do for the tests now... Thank you everyone who pitched in their ideas. They all helped a lot.

x

**Now that you know Tayuya and Kimimaro are going to be in the exams.**

**Who would you make Naruto, Tayuya, and Kimimaro fight?**

**Naturally Kabuto's teammates wont in the exam(since they are dead), and will be replaced by Tayuya and Kimimaro.**

**x**

Thanks to the first reviewer who reminded me about the disclaimer:chandosoFOX

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, or White Collar.


	19. Where Do We Begin

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

10pts to anyone who caught the white collar bit last chapter. I'll be watching it with u all tonight :D.

lawl due to a game between me and a friend(who is also the beta):Leaprechaun1, we were talking on AIM and I made a joke about how he never reviews. He in turn chose to slap on 10 or so reviews saying I don't give him credit. Anyways **HEY BRO, BIG LETTERS AT THE TOP OF THE CHAPTER, YOU, LEAPRECHAUN1 ARE THE BETA OF THE STORY :D!**

on a serious note he didn't care whether he was acknowledged for betaing or whatever, but I felt that I should post this because I felt it reflected on both of us as a bad way. It made me seem like a dick, and him appear obnoxious.

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Naruto sighed, he was standing in this giant room full of shinobi. All genin aspiring to become shinobi. Some of them were exceptionally old, near adults that hadn't been able to pass this test. Some of them merely graduated the year before him and failed, or perhaps the just hadn't taken it yet. There were teams from all sorts of countries... almost. Shinobi from the Cloud and Iwa appeared to be absent. However still, they have shinobi in the room from places as close as Suna to as distant as the Hidden Moon. He idly wondered if this many shinobi went to every chunin exam.

Naruto and his team had spent the last few days training in teamwork drills. Or in Naruto's special case, teamwork drills and refining his style. Well... they tried teamwork drills which would be closer to what actually happened. Every time they attempted a drill, they would get a quarter or half the way through before either Naruto or Sasuke would start throwing verbal jabs at each other. At times it even went into deeper subjects like Sasuke's loss of family or Naruto's lack of family. They fought like children if you were to ask Sakura.

Sasuke had been in a lower mood as of late, and Sakura was no longer always wanting to spend time with him. Now that wasn't to say he ever enjoyed her pestering by any means. However... it was nice to know that someone wants you. While Sakura had agreed to let Naruto live with her, he had been pushed out of her life. It was as if he lost Sakura to Naruto. He couldn't just openly start talking to Sakura or try to get her to notice him once again. As time carried on, Naruto appeared to be progressing in leaps and bounds. He had gone from slowest in the class save Chouji to by far faster than himself. The thought only served to bring a scowl to his face.

He had learned, that was true. Since he unlocked his sharingan on the trip to wave while he was fighting bandits it had been much easier to learn the majority of his clan jutsu. He had gone off some days and asked private training from Kakashi when he was free. The training was usually just abusing the abilities of the sharingan. If he could learn things, or should he say copy techniques near instantly... that was a valuable tool. A shinobi was well within his right to abuse it.

The opinion that he and his sensei both shared, which was one likely not shared by the general public. The public likely believed that it was wrong to copy jutsu from your allies and what not. The two of them disagreed, as did nearly any Uchiha. Or should he say late Uchiha?

The ability to know near limitless techniques was invaluable. For example, if copying your teammate's water technique that could save him in the long run from an oncoming fireball. Than by all means do it. Could it be perceived as wrong? Of course, however that didn't matter.

So Sasuke had learned the remaining jutsu of his clan, which gave him a considerably larger jutsu arsenal. In addition to his clan's jutsu, Kakashi had worked with him on his sharingan and predicting his opponent's movements. It sucked when he realized the hard way that predicting an opponent's movement wasn't everything. You needed to be faster than the opponent to be able to even counter the opponents that you can foresee.

Naruto stood in the room full of shinobi, team 8 was specifically surprised at the fact Naruto was there at all. He however took the time to pull Ino off to a corner in the room and began to whisper, "Lets get this over with now. Why the hell did you go in my head Ino?" Naruto whispered with a scowl.

Ino's heart raced when the question was asked. Especially since they were in a room full of shinobi. Many would likely be able to hear them. "Are you kidding me Naruto, you want to talk about this now?" she asked in surprise and frustration.

Naruto resisted the urge to laugh. "Yes I want to talk about it now Ino, now stop avoiding the question. If I didn't bother to ask you about it now when would you seriously come up to me and start the conversation about it." Naruto didn't want to come off as an asshole or anything. He didn't want to be abusive either. He just knew that it had been a little bit more than a month since they had been in Wave, and yet he and Ino had yet to talk. They had sex... but they didn't talk? That was pathetic in his eyes.

Naruto stared into Ino's gaze waiting for her to begin, which she did a few moments later. "Hey... I'm sorry alright?" she looked genuinely sad, she could barely look Naruto in the eye. She continued to look around the room to avoid his gaze, "I went into your head because I wanted to know why you chose Haku over me..."

Naruto scowled, he had gathered that from the way she acted afterwards. "I really don't care about that, my life has practically always been public knowledge Ino. You now know why. My question is why did you help it." Naruto put emphasis on it. He didn't want the shinobi that could listen in to know what they were talking about.

Ino shifted uncomfortably on her feet and her face turned ghostly pale. She appeared to be answering the question, until Sakura saved her day... and ruined Naruto's. "Naruto come here!" she practically yelled in the chunin exam room. Heads all turned to her which made many of the rookies sweat drop. You don't want to paint yourself a bigger target than you already have as a rookie. That was the case with nearly any competitive game.

Naruto turned to where Ino was only to ground his teeth in frustration. Ino had taken to walking over to where Sakura and the Konoha rookies were hounding over a man covered in black garbs. The man's face was covered more than Kakashi's. He actually thought they could be distant relatives due to the small spots of silver hair that randomly poke out of the worn headband.

It appeared he had been talking to the team for a while since he already had a stack of cards out and everyone was looking at them in wonder. Sasuke stared across the small circle of people and said, "Uzumaki Naruto."

Naruto looked up at him with the look of someone that was ready to snap at the person who addressed him. However before he could do that, the man before them tapped the stack of cards, and pulled out a small card before he read it out loud.

_Uzumaki Naruto, Genin  
Age: 12  
Birthdate: October 10th_

_Teammates: Haruno Sakura, Uchiha Sasuke.  
Sensei: Hatake Kakashi_

_Chakra type:???_

_Missions:  
Leader of 1 S-rank Mission._

_27 D-rank missions._

_Notable mentions: The Hokage gave Uzumaki and his Team his consent  
to enter the Chunin exams without the proper amount of Missions_

Naruto was beginning to grow a scowl the more this guy read off the damn card. He knew a lot about him and that was frustrating.

_On a scale of 1-10 in comparison to the average Genin..._

The masked individual held up a card that had fours and fives across the board when it came to things such as Ninjutsu, Taijutsu, Genjutsu, Bloodline use, and ninja tools.

_Ninjutsu: 8  
Genjutsu: 2  
Taijutsu: 10  
Bloodline: 0  
Ninja Tools: 5_

Many eyes went wide when Naruto was listed a 10 in Taijutsu. For them the only other person on the cards that had been listed as a 10 was the green spandex kid that Sasuke had asked about earlier. However while everyone's eyes went wide in surprise, Naruto's only narrowed in frustration. He had used his lightning manipulation to increase his speed once in public. How was it that this guy seemingly knew that he had recently increased his skill in Taijutsu. The thought alone brought a scowl to his face. That was why he was particularly happy when a red headed girl with a cap came up to them and practically told the shinobi in front of them to follow her back to her team.

Naruto assumed that there must have been some chain of command amongst their team because she obediently followed the white haired shinobi that sat at the back of the room next to a grass ninja. However the shinobi that was just next to them seemed to get up and obediently follow the girl.

Sasuke however was staring a Naruto in frustration. While his Ninjutsu skill was a 10 compared to the other genin, his Taijutsu was only a 7. Naruto had never been able to beat him in a fair fight. Yet suddenly he is ranked higher then him in Taijutsu? What the hell could have happened over this past month that he had not seen?

Before Naruto could drag Ino away and allow her to finish her statement from earlier, a large man suddenly appeared in the room. He knew the exam was about to start...

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Naruto scowled at the paper down in front of him. This was retarded, these questions were ridiculously hard. He had gathered that the test was about gathering information since he saw Hinata who sat beside him activate her Byakugan. That or she was a cheater. He liked to think the former. However that was the source of the problem.

Naruto had no way of gathering information. He didn't have the tools for it either. He didn't gather information sitting at a fucking desk with a pencil and paper. He gathered information the way he did in wave, by actually talking to people. This, this stupid test? This was a fucking joke. Why did he need to know what angle a kunai should be thrown, or the proper spin or throw to put on it if his Kunai's hit their mark regardless through proper practice.

Better yet who says he even planned to actively use Kunai again with the development of his new style? Naruto scowled, what are ways that he could gather information without being caught? He had been thinking for a while, and time was just ticking down to the final three minutes of the test. Hinata had offered to let Naruto see her answers, but that would surely just get them both disqualified.

However, the more he thought about all the times he had even heard about gathering information, the more he realized that there were three solid ways to gather information. One, you could do so stealthily, trying to listen in on conversations and what not. He had done that a lot during his childhood, listening in on conversations on store clerks... Well it was more to get away with stealing food. However he did find out that the husband that ran the butchery was cheating on his wife. Naruto now realized however that as a kid, probably the worst person to steal things from was a person who cut up meat for a living. Although he didn't get caught, so all is well.

The second way to gather information was his preferred way, just talking to people. If you can befriend people, most usually become pretty loose lipped regardless. He also had a knack for making friends with people outside of Konoha. Hell, he was sure a country probably loved him. Yet he had robbed them of a forth of their funds. Not his proudest moment... but it made it possible for him to live a well off life, as well as the possibility of Haku developing a spy network.

While from Haku, he truly realized the third and final method of gathering information he could think of off the top of his head. Violence. Haku interrogated Gato, and he ended up spilling the location of his funds and he made Naruto 250 million richer. Out of all forms of gathering information, it appeared that violence worked the absolute best. So with a minute left on the clock, he did the best thing that came to mind.

Naruto promptly stood up quickly and slammed his fist onto the back of the person's head right in front of him. The action gave off several-startled cry, and made the people next to the boy jump when his head bounced off of the desk. Naruto quickly reached over and looked at the name on the tests before transferring and changing the names.

Naruto now had a test that had a good eight out of nine questions answered with three seconds ticking on the clock. The team whose teammate had been knocked out was practically screaming for Naruto's head. Stealth was obviously not Naruto's top priority when he had decided to steal the boys test.

One of the screaming teammates was forced to be retrained by the chunin lining the walls of the room. He was thrashing and kicking against them, yelling at Naruto for making them lose the test. They looked absolutely murderous, but could the people really blame the raging shinobi? They would probably be acting the same way if they had lost the test that way.

Ibiki, the proctor of the test stared at Naruto with a frown on his face. They can't really pin the boy down here, there was nothing against violence in the test. They just had to pass it. Sure violence may be frowned upon, but knocking someone unconscious only counted as cheating once, twice if he wanted to be critical about Naruto taking the unconscious boy's test. Proctors in the room looked over to Ibiki seemingly for an answer, however when Ibiki was able to give nothing but a shrug everyone moved onto the final question.

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Naruto sighed, the test just suddenly took a major turn. Mitarashi Anko came on the scene, and dropped a time bomb on every team still in the exam.

_"Alright kiddies! You want to be chunin right? That is what this exam is for. As a chunin you may get a mission or a team that you don't want. This test is supposed to promote teamwork and recreate a situation you may be placed in as a chunin. Here your teams will be split up amongst the other teams among you. You don't get to choose the teams, they have been chosen for you. Now that that has been said... I need you to sign these contracts that say you knew that you are likely going to die in here."_

Naruto scowled at that. He thought it was bad that he was already picked to work with the red haired girl in the cap, and the blind boy. His team had gotten the guy with the ninja info cards. However, the annoying part had yet to come.  
_  
"You will be getting scrolls. These scrolls will be your ticket out of this place." She motioned behind her as she said this. "This place is the forest of death. True to it's name, most of you will probably die. If the shinobi in the forest don't kill you, the animals and conditions of the forest likely will. The scrolls, will be heaven and earth scrolls." she emphasized it by each type of scroll at already separated teams._

_"You need both to get into the tower located at the center of the forest. You see where I am going with this?" the second test proctor could only lick her lips a bit before continuing, "That's right, half of you at least will fail. Some of you will probably die, and some of you may disqualify yourselves. You can opt out of this test at any time, just open one of the scrolls before you reach the tower..." She paused as everyone took in what lies beyond the gates before them. "So anyways, sign the forms if you wish to continue. If not go home, this test isn't for the faint hearted. The simple rules are survive and make it to the tower with a heaven and earth scroll as a team before the 5 days is up. Have fun, and good luck. You all will need it."_

However, Naruto did hate one more thing than the test. That was this red headed girls attitude, she had a shorter temper than Sakura. He hadn't even bothered to get their name, they merely positioned themselves near their gate entrance. He could only assume that this was going to be a long five days.

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Short chapter, yes I know. Setting the scene and frankly didn't want to think up questions for the exam test or a lame way for him to pass it. I enjoyed all of you chunin exam ideas, and I'm affraid that I have grown to hate writing about the exam. It has become more of a "Damn why do I have to write today." instead of "Alright let me kick out 3000 words for the next chapter."

Hopefully it doesn't start to reflect on the chunin exams, however in case that I feel that it starts to. Expect a bunch of flashbacks(sorry)

**This got brought up to me recently and it is in fact the truth with this story. This story was originally going to be revolving around Naruto learning to use the blade. However I have just stopped writing the blade in, and cast it aside on a shelf in Naruto's house. As such I feel that the name is not doing justice to the story, and where I plan to take it. I still plan to finish up a little plot with the sword, or perhaps get back to it later after time skip. However as of now I don't see the things I originally intended with the blade actually happening. So if I am going to rename the story, it will probably be called**

**"Time Keeps Dragging On." or "It Seems So Slow."  
**

Anyways thank you everyone(nearly -.- Leaprechaun1) for reviewing. So read and review. Bit of a twist with the exam arc. The concept of the forest of death pisses me off, so I have no idea how long I will make that last. I really want to get to the prelims then the month break personally. Right there, quite a bit happens.

**I said I would address why Naruto choose to live with Sakura soon. I doubt that I will do it however until the prelims start.**

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_Two things: 1, I know this is a long way off but what do people think about Konan? I really like her however I have yet to find a serious story with her in a pairing with Naruto. Would you read a NarutoxKonan story? I am asking because I am thinking about writing on after this story is finished._

_2: Why do people hate Karin? Anyone care to explain? Out of all of team hebi(save Sasuke) I feel Karin is the most useful... People seem to hate her._


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